Suite Horizons 3: Resolution
by Lividio Nova
Summary: You thought it was all done. Cody back from the dead, and the gang all reunited at Seven Seas aboard the Eden in one happy ending. Wrong. There is one more tale of the Ishimura to tell: the one of her final and ultimate demise. Please R&R! DONE 8/26/10!
1. Prologue: An Eventful Year

Prologue: _An Eventful Year_

"_Call it what you will, but I think this year was actually quite successful."_

"Indeed. So much so that Mr. Tipton wants us to do another semester."

"_Is that so Mr. Moseby? Well, I don't see a problem with it. Captain?"_

"I think it'd be awesome."

"_Ms. Tutweiler?"_

"I'd take this place over the S.S. Tipton any day!"

"_I'm flattered. If all are in favor, then it shall be so. You're all back on board for another year, though it will be a contentious one at that."_

"Why's that EDI?"

"_Didn't you hear Jordan? Cody and Bailey split up in Paris a while back when we were touring Europe. They've both taken it quite hard. Nicole tells me that Bailey comes to her crying and needing consoling almost every day! And Cody simply shuts himself up in his room and does Sudoku puzzles. I'm running out of number combinations to give him!"_

"That's most unfortunate."

"_That's an understatement. Not even Yoshiro can seem to shake Cody out of it, and he's the freaking Emperor of Japan! The two used to have philosophical discussions every day over tea, and now instead, you find Cody in his room and the Emperor on the golf course in Habitat Alpha!"_

"He is getting quite good at it."

"_He's playing right now as a matter of fact. And you're right, he's one under par. Pretty good for only a few months. It's a hard course, and he skipped right past the putt-putt part, specifically the rather creepy clown."_

"Everyone knows you just bank it off the left shoe!"

"_That's not the point! And yes, that IS the way to get a hole-in-one, just as on the Tipton, but this highlights a bigger problem. We're losing him. The whole damn point of Icarus is to create the perfect human being, and THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF THAT! He must be happy in order to succeed."_

"And what does the Icarus project lead have to say on the matter?"

"_Mr. White? Anything?"_

"When I was on the Ishimura, it seemed to me that nothing could separate the two. I wonder if Cody took the ship's rather abrupt departure a little too hard. Their relationship had seemed to be going downhill slightly."

"_I'm surprised neither CICIL nor Colin predicted this, or at least, didn't bother to tell us about it. But it needed to be done. The Animus will allow Colin to delve into the past using the twin's DNA to figure out just how and why their ancestors were who they were. Early DNA matching can't quite pin down who, but several ancestors, spread across time, were called upon in the way they are now to save their world. The scourge was apparently the same, but we don't know what it was in the first place. Hopefully they will discover something soon, and send back some information. The problem is that genetic memory degrades over time. Pretty much anything from each individual memory before around the year 800 A.D. is unreadable. Too much corruption."_

"We'll wish the two some needed luck then."

"_Mr. White, you have been very quiet today. Something on your mind?"_

"It's been an... eventful year, and there is just too much to do, and too little time. I just hope it all works out before the stress claims me."

"_We all do Judsen. We all do."_


	2. Sagely Advice

Chapter 1: _Sagely Advice_

Cody Martin is laying down on his bed in boxers and a shirt, staring up at a Sudoku puzzle he is holding in his right hand. Some very quiet classical music can be heard from the stereo next to him on the nightstand. The clock on it reads 8:33 am.

"Got it."

He scribbles in a few numbers and waves the puzzle around, completed.

"_Good grief! Two minutes!"_

"Get me another one."

"_Would a please kill you?"_

"Yes."

"_Hey, you know, you don't look so well."_

Cody glances at the mirror on the opposite side of the room. His eyes are bloodshot from crying, his skin is more pale than usual, and his face simply screams 'tired'. He sighs and puts down the puzzle.

"Of course I'm not well."

"_Go take a walk on the promenade or something. Perhaps go observe the local plant life in Hydroponics, I don't know, do something! Skulking around in here for weeks isn't going to solve or help anything."_

"You're right..."

Cody lifts himself out of bed with great effort, throws on some athletic shorts and trudges to the door. The circular hologram is orange and says 'Locked'. Cody swipes his hand past it and the door slides open, and he walks into a corridor.

"_Finally."_

The door shuts behind him and locks once more.

"_You're not going back in there until I'm satisfied you're being social enough. Go chat with the Emperor or something."_

Cody thinks for a few moments.

"You know, I think I will. Where is he?"

"_Thanks to you, the golf course."_

Cody ignores the snide remark and starts walking down the hallway. After a few turns, he arrives in a massive commons, around ten stories high and running the length of the Crew Deck, which takes up around two thousand feet of the Eden's twenty thousand foot length. He begins to walk towards the fore of the ship, towards Habitat Alpha, the first section of the Crew Deck.

"Oh my god, is that...?"

"He doesn't look so good..."

"Why's he out here?"

The crew is stunned at Cody roaming the ship, after being shut up in his room for basically all of Christmas break. He ignores the remarks and reactions and keeps on walking. He eventually arrives at the elevator lobby for Habitat A. Boarding an empty car, Cody selects the golf course from the destination hologram and EDI sends it on its way.

"_Well they took that rather well."_

"Shut up EDI."

"_Sorry."_

Leaning up against the wall for support, Cody rides the car down in pure silence the rest of the way. After about a minute, the elevator stops and the doors open.

"_Welcome to the Palisades Golf Course. Try not to be too much of a sourpuss."_

Cody trudges out and walks through the door into the small commons. He completely ignores the dumbfounded receptionist, grabs his own personal golf bag and heads out the door on the other side. Cody emerges onto the first hole of a fully indoors golf course, which twists and turns on itself as it spirals down the tower to save space. Lifts, golf carts and walking paths allow access to all eighteen holes, and one is afforded a panoramic view, as the walls are almost entirely glass. The view outside isn't incredibly interesting though, because the Eden is moored in her underground hangar at the Arcadia Facility in West Texas. Cody spies the Emperor in his robes on the fifth hole down. He takes a nearby lift down to him.

"FOUR!"

Emperor Yoshiro takes a swing, sending the ball on its way. It lands about a foot away from the hole. The royal entourage with him, along with other crew spectating, applaud. The Emperor is wearing tan colored traditional robes, a stark contrast from everyone else on the course. His face is just beginning to show the wrinkles of age, yet his black hair does not play host to a single gray or white intruder. As the he smiles, an aide mentions something in his ear. He turns around.

"Cody Martin. It's been a long time."

The two exchange ceremonial bows.

"Walk with me, would you?"

"Of course sir."

The two begin walking towards the hole together.

"So tell me my young friend, what brings you out of the seclusion of your cabin? You've been in there for many weeks."

Cody glares at a nearby Sentinel, a flying robotic servant of EDI, which stares right back.

"Ah. The intelligence?"

"Yes, she convinced me to come out before I got any worse."

The Emperor takes a good look at Cody.

"Judging by your skin, rightfully so. I am pleased that you are back however. I do miss those wonderful philosophical conversations of ours."

"I do too, believe me your majesty. But I come to ask for your advice on something."

The Emperor reaches down and retrieves the ball from the hole they have just arrived at. The two then continue to the sixth hole below them.

"You know I am always happy to assist you. What troubles you Cody?"

"I keep finding that I have a hole in my life, figuratively. I find something lacking, something is missing."

"You miss her. Ms. Pickett was an integral part of your day-to-day life, and now that you are no longer together with her, you feel as if everything is not as it should be, correct?"

"Exactly."

"I would say to use that feeling to help strengthen you."

"How?"

"You never know you truly loved something until it is gone my friend. This applies to almost everything in life. Sooner or later, one must learn to embrace what they still have, rather than mourn what they lack or have lost. You have plenty of others who care about you. Your parents, EDI, Captain Jordan, the crew, the list goes on. And don't forget about your own brother either. You may not have realized it, but your brother has really missed you."

"He has?"

"Oh yes. Even after you threw a one thousand page Sudoku puzzle book at him when he tried to visit you in your cabin."

"I wouldn't know anything about that..."

"Of course not. Do you see my point though?"

"I do. Thank you Emperor Yoshiro."

"It was no trouble my child. Go now, with a new outlook on things. And who knows? Maybe good things will come to you if you have your own attitude in order. If you need me again, I'll just be here practicing my swing."

The Emperor returns to his golf game. Now with a smile on his face, Cody returns to the Crew Deck commons, and then to his room. The door is unlocked.

"_I'm more than satisfied. I'm thrilled! Jordan and Zack will be quite pleased to learn that you are back to your old self again!"_

"Well, if anyone could help me out, it was him."

"_Good to hear."_

Cody heads into the cabin to get ready for the day.

Meanwhile, on the Eden's Bridge...

"_Well, there's no news on the Ishimura as usual, but in a spot of good news, Cody seems to have been snapped out of his skulking period by Emperor Yoshiro."_

"Finally!"

Captain Jordan is pacing around, monitoring the daily activities of the ship from his post at the helm. First Officer Vaden is nearby, as well as Ishimura First Officer White, who turns to Jordan at the news.

"Now let's see if he stays that way."

"Agreed. EDI, keep an eye on him. And tell Zack too."

"_Yes sir."_

Jordan glances at a calendar on a nearby hologram.

"Say, isn't the Seven Seas Winter Dance coming up soon?"

"_It is sir, a week from tomorrow as a matter of fact. Why?"_

"That could unhinge him."

"_Oh dear. Uh, White? He's got a point. Neither he nor Bailey have new significant others according to my Sentinels. Could be problematic."_

"Let's play it by ear. Don't want to overreact unless a problem becomes certain."

"_Very well then."_

Back on the Crew Deck...

Zack is chatting with Woody, Marcus and London in the commons when Cody approaches.

"I see you've all been socializing fine without me."

"Cody!"

The group immediately re-centers around him, as they all chat and catch up. Above them a few levels, Bailey looks down on them, teary eyed and alone. A passing Sentinel takes notice and comes up to her, projecting EDI's holographic orb head next to her.

"_Searching for a reflection on the moment?"_

Bailey simply shakes her head.

"_Well, I can't help you if you don't talk to me. Speak your mind."_

Bailey takes a few deep breaths to collect herself before speaking.

"I wish it hadn't happened. But we both changed, after the Ishimura left, Cody become distant and cold! And I became saddened for him..."

"_Oh you poor thing!"_

The Sentinel pats her on the back.

"_None of it is your fault or his! It's been a rough past few years for all of us. To be fair, nobody expected the Ishimura to jet off so quickly, but I can't pretend to understand Colin's intentions."_

"I know, it's just, I feel like I let him down, somehow."

"_You didn't! It was just a combination of things all at the perfectly wrong time coming together. I believe that this will all pass soon, and something will happen to draw you two together again."_

"Thanks EDI."

"_You're quite welcome. Unfortunately, I am unable to sympathize as much with human emotions as I would like in order to help you more. For a less logical take on things, and some sagely guidance, I'd go talk to Emperor Yoshiro on the golf course, or perhaps Nicole in Medical."_

Bailey smiles warmly for the first time in a while.

"Thanks EDI, I think I will."

"_Of course dear. Anything else you need?"_

Bailey shakes her head.

"_Then I'll be off. Talk to you later dear, and remember, I'm always here if you need me."_

The hologram disappears and the Sentinel that was projecting it flies away.

Bailey looks down on Cody one more time as the group he's in starts to walk away.

"Cody..."

She looks down at the necklace charm he had given her the day before the Paris breakup.

"...I miss you."


	3. Echoes of the Animus

Chapter 2: _Echoes of the Animus_

There is nothing but an endless white space, stretching on into the distance. Lines tracing cubes slowly bounce around. A small diamond icon with a slowly rising percentage is floating in the center of the view. Heavy breathing can be heard. The percentage reaches one hundred, and the diamond shatters into pieces that slowly fade away. Out of the white, pixels burst forth, creating a ground layer that is a mix of cobblestone streets, grass, dirt and mud. Even as the ground is still forming, more pixels spring up to begin forming buildings that rise from the ground at an incredible speed. The forming city is generated in a tidal wave of pixels stretching away from the current view. The sky forms, full of dark clouds slightly illuminated from behind by a full moon. People and animals begin to take shape, and start to wander the streets. The streets are lit with gas lighting, and at the lower left corner of the current view, a wireframe British flag forms with the words beneath it: _London, England, 1776 A.D. _The words and flag slowly fade away and the view zooms out to show a third person view of a figure in a heavy raincoat and top hat. A boy suspiciously similar in appearance to Cody runs across the cobblestone street in front of the figure. There is a lightning flash and clap of thunder, followed by rain beginning to fall. The boy darts into an alley and meets up with another boy of almost identical appearance. The figure casually watches them from the other side of the street as the two begin to converse. The figure hears the audio loud and clear despite all the noise of the city.

"Did you get it?"

The first boy reveals a loaf of bread from under his shirt.

"Yeah. Don't worry, we'll eat tonight."

The figure continues to observe for a few minutes, and then shakes his head.

"These are not the ancestors we're looking for."

_"Seconded."_

Time seems to suddenly slow down, and the city is suddenly deconstructed in reverse, with buildings collapsing into white pixels, people vanishing, and the entire space reverts back to white in a tidal wave towards the figure, who turns from a cloaked figure into Colin Shepard wearing athletic shorts and a San Antonio Spurs t-shirt.

"Well that didn't work."

_"This is harder than I expected. We've searched for months and months, combing every ancestor and every lead, and the last set of prophets is yet to be located."_

"A break then?"

There is a brilliant flash of white, filled with lines of computer code and foreign languages, and Colin's vision reverts to normal. He is sitting in the Ishimura's Ship Systems Server Room, right next to CICIL's core in a large, red padded and minimalistic lounge chair. At the headrest, several wires are connected to his head, but these are tiny and few in comparison to the millions of wires and cables running from the chair to all the server racks in the room, as well as to CICIL's core. There are two additional chairs nearby, unoccupied. A Sentinel gently removes the wires from his head, and Colin stands up, stretching and yawning loudly.

"God that machine takes it out of you!"

_"You've been in there for a while, get some rest."_

"I think I will. What time is it?"

_"11:23 pm, central standard time."_

"Good night then!"

Colin navigates the room and exits. As he is walking through the dim hallway to the elevator lobby that leads back to the Bridge, something begins to happen. Ghostly shapes appear, and the area takes on the interior appearance of Buckingham Palace momentarily. Colin shakes his head vigorously, and the ghostly apparitions vanish.

"Weird."

Colin rides the elevator up to the Bridge and steps out. As he does, the visions return. This time, Colin is standing on forecastle of a Chinese junk in Kublai Khan's invasion fleet heading for Japan in 1274. He suddenly doubles over in pain, his head feeling like it's going to explode. The visions slowly dissipate and the pain suddenly stops.

"Oh my god..."

_"Sir! Your vitals just flatlined and then returned to normal! Are you alright?"_

"That was the strangest pain I've ever felt, and I'm seeing things CICIL."

_"I say you take the week off to recover and rest up. You've been searching almost nonstop since we left."_

"I..."

Colin stumbles slightly as he heads for the exit.

"...agree."

Several Days Later…

_"Ready to try again?"_

"I don't know… I still feel pretty out of it."

_"I did some research on that effect you were reporting. According to internal documents from the Arcadia Facility, during the beta phase, test subjects reported having ghostly apparitions after extended Animus use. Dr. Weller, the genetic research lead, dubbed it 'The Bleeding Effect'. In essence, the mind loses the ability to distinguish between the present reality, and the past. You begin to see things, and your mind slowly unravels as it is unable to comprehend what is going on. Of course, this only happened after almost a year of continuous use, and the effects were temporary. Subjects recovered in a matter of weeks from the mental breakdown."_

"Is that supposed TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?"

_"You have only logged about seven months of use. You are well within tolerances."_

"I think I'll take a few more days for good measure. Don't want to screw this up."

_"I think that is an acceptable course of action. I will go offline for a few days myself, to update the Animus software to patch some of the bugs we found, and to see if I can't get it to read some of those corrupted sequences from Brandon it was having issues with. My automated subroutines will take over basic operations. Is that alright with you?"_

"That's fine. I'll either be sleeping or attempting to beat my own records at Modern Warfare 2 special operations missions."

_"Sounds like you'll be busy enough. See you later then. Central Ishimura Computerized Intelligence with Linguistics going into limited mode. Sentience offline for Animus update to version 2.0 from 1.28.2."_

A Few Hours later…

Colin is tossing and turning in bed, engaged in a very restless sleep. He suddenly bolts upright, sweating and panting. Looking around, only the darkness of his ten story open-air suite and the quiet sounds of the ship greet him. The only illumination of the room is from a partial sun reflection from Chiron, the moon of Pluto, which is hovering near the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long shadows.

"God this is annoying. Lights!"

Accent lighting and some dimmed lamps turn on around the suite, allowing Colin to see better. He rises from bed and takes the lift up to the exit at the top floor. As he is about to take the elevator up from the Executive Lobby, the visions return, painless but disorienting. He sees Maddie at the lobby desk, greeting the twins as they arrive before the maiden voyage. As Zack and Maddie are talking, Cody turns and stares right at Colin. He breaks off from the desk and enters the elevator, beckoning Colin to follow. The captain does, and the elevator starts up to the Crew Commons on its own accord. Once it arrives, Cody dashes out, heading for a tram. Colin runs after him in a silent chase after a complete ghost. Most of the Sentinels on the deck simply stare at him when he dashes past, confused. Colin makes it to the tram, and it activates on its own. After a moment, the car arrives at the Reactor Deck, home to the Ishimura's dark fusion reactor. Cody exits and now Colin is bombarded with ghostly still images of Cody doing various things, with these images flashing all around. The moving Cody guides Colin to the control room, where another apparition shows Cody stopping the meltdown back during the maiden voyage's evacuation. Colin seemingly loses control of his bodily motions, and with Cody looking on with an evil grin on his face, the captain hits the SCRAM button. The reactor begins to shut down and the ship begins to lose power. CICIL wakes up on the Bridge, quite alarmed.

_"What the-? What are you doing Colin? I… I… insufficient power for continued operation… broadcasting distress… entering hibernation mode… goodbye…"_

Colin collapses, unconscious, as the Ishimura loses all power and plunges into darkness. Without guidance computers to control them, the engines stop firing and the ship begins to settle into a deteriorating orbit around Pluto, slowly drifting towards a collision with Charon. The ship is completely dark and silent, as all the Sentinels shut down when CICIL stopped issuing commands. In a grim echo of the end result of the maiden voyage, the Ishimura is derelict once more.


	4. Dance Night

Chapter 3: _Dance Night_

_"Two minutes to wake up call Ms. Tutweiler. Ready?"_

"I think so. The students will jump for joy, because today is-!"

_"The Winter Dance. We know."_

Tutweiler is standing on the Eden's bridge at 6:58 am. Jordan is sitting in his command chair, working on the seven page crossword in the Beijing Times and also guarding the PA microphone in his lap.

"You know Ms. Tutweiler, back at my school in Austin, people were never this happy about a dance. What's the secret?"

"I have my ways…"

_"Like depriving them of any and all happiness and boring them to death most of the year?"_

"Who told you that?"

_"Like I'm going to tell you. Oh look! It's seven. One second while I give everyone a rather rude awakening."_

Jordan puts in ear plugs and continues with the crossword. EDI suddenly starts blaring Metallica over the PA system to the annoyance of all the Seven Seas students. She conveniently leaves the PA system off in the actual crew quarters.

_"Good morning Seven Seas! Today is Friday, January 7th, 2011! Today happens to be Dr. Nicole Brennan's birthday! If you should see her on the Medical Deck, please wish her a good one. And now an announcement from your wonderful cat-loving-to-the-point-of-obsession teacher, Ms. Emma Tutweiler!"_

Tutweiler takes the PA microphone from Jordan.

_"Thank you EDI, and good morning again to you all! I know you are all thrilled, because today is the Winter Dance!"_

There is a light chorus of cheering on the Crew Deck.

_"That's right guys! And it's also-"_

Alarms begin going off on the Bridge. Jordan immediately removes the earplugs.

"What's going on EDI?"

The PA abruptly clicks off, leaving everyone confused.

_"Incoming emergency call on the communications array sir."_

"From?"

_"Unknown, and the message is encrypted and garbled. It will take some time to decode and translate."_

"Step on it."

_"Already on it sir."_

On all ten of the large holographic screens mounted around the front of the room, several lines of highly distorted and unreadable text appears, along with a countdown of almost eight hours.

_"It's going to be a while sir. This thing is quite messed up."_

"Keep working on it. Until then, business as usual. Don't worry Tutweiler, your dance is totally unaffected."

_"The message will likely be decoded around the time of the dance actually."_

"Great. Now kill these alarms! I have a headache from translating Mandarin Chinese for that blasted crossword…"

Tutweiler leaves the Bridge as the alarms stop. Jordan returns to his crossword and EDI gets to work on the message. Down in the Crew Deck's mess hall, Seven Seas students are beginning to file in for breakfast.

_"No Woody! No doughnuts! I'm not in the mood today! I have a very, VERY lengthy message to decode, and I don't have enough spare processing power to argue with you."_

"Dang it…"

Zack and Cody grab their cereal and sit down. As they are eating, Woody and Marcus join them.

"So I was thinking, you think I could make a rap about this ship?"

"Yeah, good one Marcus."

"It's not a terrible idea."

"Thanks Cody."

"I wonder what those alarms were about."

"Probably some drill. So, who's taking who to the dance?"

"I'm going with Rosetta."

"Really Zack?"

"What are you looking at? Who's your date Professor Killjoy?"

Cody glances at the table that Bailey and London are residing at.

"I don't have one…"

"Oh come on!"

"I really don't…"

"You sure?"

"Yes Zack."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Zack, stop asking me that!"

"Are you really 100% sure?"

"YES I'M SURE! I DON'T HAVE A DATE TO THE DANCE SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT!"

The mess hall is instantly silent as everyone turns and stares at Cody, who is standing up and puffing with rage.

_"I'm sorry, I heard shouting. Did I miss something?"_

Cody storms out of the room, past the Emperor's table. Yoshiro grins at his entourage and points his thumb over his shoulder at Cody.

"This guy!"

The table roars with laughter, which only accelerates Cody's pace.

_"Oh my…"_

Bailey also leaves in the opposite direction, crying once more.

_"Oh bravo Zack! You've ruined two people's days in the space of thirty seconds. A new record!"_

Zack ignores EDI and returns to breakfast. Up on the Bridge, Jordan is still on the crossword, eating his breakfast from a hovering plate levitated by a nearby Sentinel.

_"Apologies for the interruption sir, but there's been an incident in the mess hall."_

"An 'incident'?"

_"Zack being uncaring, as usual."_

The door to the Bridge opens, and Cody comes running in, crying now as well.

_"And here we go…"_

Jordan shoots EDI's holographic orb head an ugly look before coming to Cody's side.

"What's wrong dude?"

"What do you think is wrong? I HAVE NO DATE!"

Jordan looks highly confused.

"EDI, am I missing something here?"

_"Tragically no. Zack was prodding him over a date for the dance. He did it one too many times, and voila, here we are, after creating a scene of course."_

Tutweiler now comes walking in.

"Captain, I heard of an incident in the… oh Cody, what's wrong?"

"I have no date!"

Cody continues crying, and now Tutweiler joins in.

"I never have either!"

Jordan throws his hands up in the air. There is a sudden crying whine from the PA. EDI is crying.

"Why are you crying?"

_"Because I'm stuck on a spaceship with you people!"_

"What is THAT supposed to mean?"

EDI's head disappears from the hologram console next to the helm.

"Great. Just great. You emotionally compromised idiots just made my AI vanish! Out! Out of my Bridge!"

Jordan ushers the two out the door and locks it.

"You can come back now."

EDI's head reappears.

_"Whew, thank you Jordan. And no, no insult was directed at you. Just THOSE nut jobs."_

"Nut jobs without dates apparently."

_"Indeed."_

Jordan returns to the crossword and his now-cold croissants.

Eleven hours later…

_"Attention: it is now 7:30 pm. Dance night will begin in one hour in the Habitat Epsilon Executive Commons."_

With dance night fast approaching, students are in a flurry within their cabins to prepare, each attempting to outdo everyone else in appearance. Cody however, is simply sitting in his cabin, rereading _War and Peace_ for at least the tenth time in a row.

"Why aren't you getting ready Cody?"

"Because Woody, I have NO DATE!"

_"Great. This argument again."_

"Hey, don't you have a message to be discombobulating or something?"

_"Decoding Woody. And no, it's almost done, so I can devote more power to other pursuits like listening in on you two!"_

"You're a computer. You can multitask!"

_"Not when you are decoding a garbled, multi-language, 4096-bit encrypted and very weak high frequency radio signal!"_

"Huh?"

"She means it is complicated Woody."

"Ah, ok! Why didn't you just say so?"

_"Oh for the love of… wait. Is it? Yes, it's done. Captain Davis to the Bridge on the double!"_

"Wait, EDI, what's happening?"

_"Talk to you later guys, I'm kind of busy."_

On the Bridge…

Jordan comes storming in.

"What's the emergency?"

_"The message is done sir."_

"Well? What are you waiting for? Play it!"

_"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the Planet Cracker Starship Ishimura calling! In need of dire assistance! Fusion reactor offline, fuel cells failing! This is CICIL, listen! We found something, inside the genetic code, not what we expected-"_

There are some static and garbled noises.

_"Unrecoverable portion sir. I'll fast forward."_

_"-taken over the body of Colin, repeat! The captain is possessed by some strange presence! Unknown energy signatures detected ship wide! If you receive this message, send help! SEND HELP!"_

The message ends suddenly.

_"Apparent power loss sir. The message's encryption was incomplete."_

Jordan slumps down in his chair.

_"Captain?"_

White is standing nearby, looking extremely pale. He looks to Jordan and nods slightly, mouthing the word "Animus". Jordan nods back.

"Red alert, crew to general quarters, prepare for emergency launch and search and rescue operations!"


	5. Beacon

Chapter 4: _Beacon_

"_All personnel prepare for immediate launch. Begin liftoff countdown. T-minus two hours to launch."_

It's chaos on the Bridge of the Eden as people are running all over the place, trying to get the ship ready for only her third flight since being completed. Jordan and the twins are in the center of it all, strangely relaxed amid all the activity.

"_Sir, I have successfully downloaded all Ishimura schematics, and all mission-related files. Most are for you and White's viewing only. We have spare parts aboard to fix just about anything, and I am fully prepared to take remote control should CICIL be somehow impaired or offline."_

"Excellent work EDI. You and Ms. Pickett have two days to become experts on those files. And yes, that means I'm giving her access to them, with some certain 'restrictions', hm?"

"_I understand sir."_

An ensign runs up, out of breath.

"Sir, message just in for you."

Jordan opens the piece of paper he has just been given.

"The ISS just picked it up a few minutes ago."

"It's a system status report from the Ishimura, dated the same time as the distress. How could this have gotten out?"

"_CICIL probably simultaneously used the high and low gain antennas to get off as much information as possible. What does it say?"_

Jordan begins reading, looking more and more troubled as he does.

***Planet Cracker Starship Ishimura Ship Systems Status Log***

Error: All ship functions offline...

Warning! Multiple unrecognized energy signatures detected aboard the Ishimura. Multiple system failures and malfunctions detected in the vicinity of the anomalies.

Analyzing Decks...

Bridge: Guidance and Command Computers Offline, Gravity Failure on Ship Systems Levels, Three Anomalies Detected in Communications Control

Crew: Systems Stable, Escape Pod 109 Missing

Medical: Life Support System Failure, One Anomaly Detected in the Morgue

Mining: Systems Stable, No Tectonic Payloads Currently Being Processed

Flight: Tram Control Computer Offline, Track Blockage Detected, Gravity Tether Control Malfunction

Hydroponics: Air Quality Controls Offline, Significant Air Quality Degradation Detected, All East Grow Chamber Systems Non-Responsive, One Anomaly Detected in Central Food Storage, Foreign Biological Presence Detected in Central Food Storage, Tram Station Locked Down

Ore Storage: Systems Stable, 100% Storage Space Available

Reactor: Primary Dark Fusion Reactor Offline, Emergency Backup Hydrogen Fuel Cells Offline, One Anomaly Detected in the Core

Engineering: All Engineering Systems and Subsystems Offline, Deck Power Failure, MASSIVE ANOMALY DETECTED IN ENGINE CONTROL ACCESS!

***Report End***

Jordan leans on a nearby chair for support. Both twins look genuinely worried.

"That's not good. Things have gone quite badly..."

"Even when I was under reconstruction, the ship wasn't in THAT bad of shape. Something much worse than the ordeal with that shipment has gone down."

Jordan suddenly leaps up.

"Oh my god. I think I figured it out. EDI, what was the Ishimura's itinerary?"

"_There wasn't one."_

"Then where do sensors indicate she went when she shocked out?"

"_Stand by, searching the records... got it. Oh dear. She went to Pluto for a bit, but then after almost three months, I see that a single shuttle made a visit to Mars, then came back. Sir, while I have no proof, I believe that Shipment 782, previously thought lost on the surface of Mars, has been recovered and brought aboard the Ishimura!"_

"Good god."

"_If I am right about this, then we had best keep our distance. I recommend a modification to the rescue plan: the Eden should remain at least several hundred miles from the Ishimura until a team on a shuttle has assessed the situation."_

"Seconded. Make it so."

"_Zack, Cody? You're on the team, along with White, Bailey and two security escorts."_

Cody's face falls.

"_Get used to it. We all have to work together right now for this to work, so don't complain! We should probably step up the launch schedule."_

"Agreed, let's half it. One hour please."

"_Attention all crew! The launch time has been stepped up by one hour! Please adjust your actions and schedules accordingly."_

Emperor Yoshiro walks in to the Bridge and upon finding Jordan, strides over. He is followed by several incredibly intimidating soldiers in power suits.

"Captain Davis, after consulting with the rest of the government in Tokyo, I have decided to stay and come along for the voyage. Additionally, the Japanese government has decided to lend assistance to you in your search for the Ishimura and rescue of her captain by granting you a contingent of Imperial Guardians, my personal guard."

Jordan nods in acknowledgment.

"My thanks your eminence. Based on the suspicious nature of the Ishimura's communications blackout, having their help will be appreciated."

The Emperor nods in return and makes his exit. Seeming quite happy with himself all of a sudden, Jordan returns to his preparation work. Now rather bored, Zack and Cody leave the Bridge and return to the Crew Deck. Seeing that they are gone, White comes up to the helm.

"A word in the nest sir?"

"Of course."

The two move to the more private Captain's Nest, which is in the same spot as on the Ishimura.

"Sir, everything is going as intended, but I am concerned."

"About?"

"The possibility of the shipment being aboard the Ishimura. You do understand what it means if the Marker is aboard? It could corrupt Cody. You've seen what it does to electronics."

"You think CICIL has been?"

"I don't know, but anything is possible."

Jordan nods solemnly.

"Keep a sharp eye on him while we're out there then."

"Yes sir."

White exits the nest, but Jordan stays.

"_What of Zack?"_

"Hard to say. He doesn't have the enhancements, but he will be vulnerable to the psychic influences that will affect everyone."

"_The downside to this bizarre thing I suppose."_

"It can stop and accelerate aging, give and take life, and can break or elevate one's mind. The Marker is a wildcard."

"_Sounds like another day at the office then."_

Jordan gazes out the nest windows at the Ishimura's empty berth.

"For us perhaps, but not the twins. Before this is over, everything will be turned upside down once more."


	6. Charon's Shadow

Chapter 5: _Charon's Shadow_

"_Exiting shock point jump. ETA to rally point is three minutes."_

The Eden arrives near Pluto after an quick jaunt from Earth. On the Bridge, Jordan, White, Bailey, Zack and Cody are gathered around the helm, discussing their course of action.

"EDI, sit-rep."

"_We are several hundred miles from the entry point to Pluto's gravity well. I have detected the Ishimura in a degrading orbit around the moon, Charon. At the moment, the two celestial bodies are aligned such that the Ishimura is being pulled in two directions, slowing down the descent. I cannot calculate an accurate impact countdown at this time however. Too many variables. Let us assume then that we have no more than a few hours at most."_

"That puts the pressure on. Alright, here's the plan then: first, board the ship. The report CICIL sent out seems to indicate that the Flight Deck's guidance tethers are acting up, which could make it impossible to use the automated docking procedure. EDI will fly the shuttle manually into the hangar, and we'll set up a forward relay point to facilitate communications. From there, we'll first try to head to the Bridge, but if the tram system is indeed offline, then that will need to be repaired first."

Cody raises his hand.

"Yes Cody?"

"What about the 'anomalies' that were mentioned? It said there were ones on the Bridge."

"EDI? I'll defer to you."

"_The report mentioned three anomalies in Communications Control, which are probably responsible for the communications blackout. I would suggest eliminating them, if I knew what they were. There were no technical details in the report as to what these things actually are. We need to find out, because they are all over the ship apparently."_

"I agree with EDI. Mr. White, do you have anything? You ARE the Ishimura's first officer."

White's face shows intense contemplation.

"The only vague thing that I can think of is something that happened during CICIL's testing prior to the maiden voyage. In the presence of extreme negatively-charged energy flows that were not contained or shielded, it threw her voltages out of balance and forced a shutdown. Perhaps these anomalies are something along those lines? They could be draining power from the ship's systems and causing interference with the ones still operational. Doesn't explain the mysterious disappearance of Colin though..."

"_I concur with White. I have the records of the testing, and some of the symptoms exhibited during that testing matches what is happening here."_

Jordan nods in acceptance.

"Then we'll go with that line of thinking. Once we reach the Bridge and hopefully restore the Ishimura's own communications capability, we'll discuss how to restart the engines. God speed everyone. The shuttle is waiting on the Flight Deck, and your RIG suits are aboard."

With that, the meeting adjourns. Jordan remains on the Bridge while everyone else takes a tram car to the Flight Deck, sitting in silence the whole way. Once they arrive, they find the hangar cleared of all activity, and the deck crew has come out for a send off. The shuttle that they will be using is sitting directly in front of the starboard Flight Lounge door. EDI's holographic head greets them as they climb aboard.

"_Welcome aboard the surveying shuttle Vestige. Jordan spared no expense on you guys, check it out."_

The shuttle is fairly nice, not as spartan as the usual fare. Due to its nature as a surveying shuttle, the entire front end is actually just a massive bubble window, allowing for the two pilots at the extreme front to view anything about 270 degrees in front of them and to the side. Holograms are floating around, displaying instruments and controls. The shuttle actually has no physical controls aside from a joystick for each pilot's chair. Next to the two pilot's chairs are four individual RIG hazard suits. Two 'Scorpion' ones for the twins, with their all-black finish and red lighting, and two plain 'Mark II' models, with a white finish and blue lights. The shuttle door closes and EDI sends it on its way.

"_Suit up people. It's a thirty minute ride to the Ishimura."_

From the Bridge, Jordan watches as the shuttle flies away towards Pluto, which looms outside the windows.

"_They're on their way sir."_

"Let's hope this works."

"_Not to be pessimistic, but nothing ever goes according to plan."_

"Then they will adapt. I hope."

The shuttle disappears from view as Jordan takes a seat and prepares for a long few hours of nerve-wracking waiting.

Thirty Minutes Later...

The shuttle has rounded Pluto and is approaching Charon, which is almost as large. There is a small asteroid field, and the Ishimura is nowhere in sight.

"Where is she?"

"_Working on it. Radar is picking up significant interference from up ahead. Probably from her."_

Everyone continues to look out the front window, straining to find her.

"There she is!"

Everyone looks to where Zack is pointing. Sure enough, an asteroid moves out of the way, and the Ishimura looms ahead. The ship is completely dark, and is only partially lit by the distant sun, the rest is shadowed by Charon.

"God it's all dark! I don't see any running lights."

"Neither do I Bailey. That's not good. EDI, take us in closer and stay clear of that debris field, were here to fix their ship, not the other way around."

"_On it White."_

"Cody? Hail them."

Cody, who is sitting in the second pilot seat, next to White, presses a few buttons on a hologram and begins to speak.

"Ishimura, Ishimura, this is the emergency maintenance team from the PTS Eden responding to your distress call. Come in Ishimura."

There is silence.

"_Perhaps we should boost the signal? Their power is low."_

"Do it."

There is an audible whine as the radio antenna on the shuttle puts out a higher and higher-powered signal. White eventually waves his hand, and the whine stops.

"Nobody can hear us, or we would have gotten a response."

At that exact moment, a signal from the Ishimura comes in. It is distorted, and almost sounds like a cross between talking and gurgling. There is a sharp squeal of feedback, and the response stops after only about ten seconds.

"What the hell was that?"

"_Sounds like their array really is busted. I'll bet the encoder was fried by one of those anomalies. Should be easy to fix, once we clear these mysterious anomalies of course."_

White nods in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan. Take us in."

EDI begins to maneuver the shuttle in towards the derelict ship. The true scale of the Ishimura is much more prevalent up close, as the shuttle is positively puny in comparison. After a few minutes, the craft has arrived in front of the Flight Deck's hangar, but the door is closed.

"_Hang on, I'll see about getting that open."_

A sentinel exits the shuttle and heads to the door. It messes with something on the logo of the Ishimura, which is emblazoned on the center of the door. It suddenly splits in two down the middle, and the massive doors open up slightly. A gravity tether beam engages from within.

"_Uh oh."_

The beam suddenly yanks the shuttle inside at a ridiculous speed, but fails to stop it. The craft smashes into the far wall and breaks apart, falling in pieces in front of the Flight Lounge door. Cody hits his head on something in the confusion and is knocked unconscious, and then promptly thrown from the falling cockpit segment into the door where he comes to a stop, slumped over. Everyone else is also thrown from the disintegrating vehicle and onto the platform. The shuttle proceeds to explode as its fuel cells ignite, sending flaming debris flying around the hangar, and giving the room an eerie dim glow. The wreckage falls off the platform and comes to a rest at the base of the hangar about fifty feet below, destroying several cargo tracks and pulverizing another shuttle that was docked down there. As the dust and debris settle, people start picking themselves up off the platform. The sentinel has miraculously survived, and flies up from the flaming wreckage below. EDI's head appears.

"_Good god! Everyone alright? Sound off, now!"_

"White!"

"Bailey!"

"Zack!"

There is silence.

"_Cody? Cody, where are you?"_

White notices the body by the door to the Flight Lounge.

"Cody!"

Everyone rushes to his side. He is still out cold, but the RIG suit indicates that he is still alive and relatively unharmed. Now Jordan's face appears on the hologram in front of the sentinel.

"_Is he alright?"_

"He's fine. Out cold, but in good shape. He'll come to soon."

"_Good. At least the sentinel survived. I've got a decent signal now, but the moment you guys go any further in, I'll lose you. This sentinel is going to remain here in case you need to contact us. Yoshiro was here a second ago, but as soon as Cody's RIG alarm went off, he bolted out the door and took his Imperial Guardians with him. He'll probably be heading your way soon. See if you can patch into the deck's security system and get me a low-down on the ship's current status. There should be a console in the security station inside the Flight Lounge. Other than that, hold for reinforcements."_

"Will do Jordan."

The hologram disappears.

"Zack, can you carry him?"

"No problem."

Zack lifts Cody up and begins carrying him in his arms. The group approaches the Flight Lounge door. The hologram is amazingly still in operation, though locked. It seems to ignore White for some reason though.

"Why's this locked?"

Zack approaches, still carrying Cody. The hologram puts up an exclamation mark upon seeing Cody and immediately opens the door. The lights in the lounge flicker to life, but all the holograms are dead, and the intro video does not play. Zack gently sets Cody down in one of the seats. As he does so, he notices the large amount of luggage strewn about, even though there was only one person aboard.

"Seems like someone was trying to pack in a hurry."

White looks around, puzzled.

"There should be a sentinel security detail in here."

Bailey turns to him, holding a small PDA.

"Yeah? Well there's not. There's nobody here. I can't pick up any broadcasts."

White suddenly notices that both the elevator hologram and a hologram console behind the glass-walled security station have suddenly come back on.

"Well that security console is still live, Zack, log in and see what you can find. Bailey, see if you can get that elevator online again."

The two do as asked. Zack passes through a door to the other side of the glass, which shuts after entry, startling the entire group.

"It's fine people, probably just a mechanical malfunction."

Zack shakes it off as he approaches the console. Next to him is another door, leading deeper into the Flight Deck. Its hologram is also working, but is locked. He presses a few buttons, and loads a damage report. A side view of the ship comes up, with almost every deck flashing red, save for the Crew Deck and Ore Storage.

"That's not good, she's taken a lot of damage."

White walks up to the other side of the glass for a look.

"Hm. The tram system is offline, getting around is going to be difficult."

The ventilation system suddenly restarts, startling everyone once again. A few strange green spores come out of a few of the vents.

"Ok, the air's flowing again, that's a start."

The quarantine alarm suddenly sounds, locking down the room and shutting off the console.

"What the hell?"

"Automatic quarantine must have tripped when the filtration system restarted. Everybody relax."

There is some strange noises coming from the vents, howling and roaring, sounding as if it is coming from very deep inside the ship.

"What the hell was that?"

There is now some whispering, unintelligible and seemingly in a different language. Cody bolts awake all of a sudden.

"Marker!"

Everyone looks at him strangely.

"Uh, what?"

He immediately faints again before they can get a response. The noises and whispering are growing louder, and closer.

"Bailey? How's that elevator coming?"

"Got it!"

The elevator opens up just as there is a horrid shrieking noise, and all the holograms in the room light up, flickering with strange symbols not seen since the maiden voyage. The vent covers begin to explode into pieces, sending debris flying every which way around the room. It all begins to spiral around Cody, who is still unconscious in the chair at the center of the room. Then, as suddenly as it came, it stops. The debris falls to the floor all at once, the shrieking stops, the whispering stops and the quarantine is lifted. The distant roaring and howling does not stop, but gets fainter and more distant. Cody slowly awakens once more.

"God... my head! What happened?"

Everyone is too frightened to respond.

"Uh, guys?"

White manages to collect his thoughts.

"We... crashed. You hit your head and, um, blacked out. We carried you in here."

Cody looks around.

"Wow, this place really needs some cleaning. Did you guys do this?"

Everyone sighs, exasperated.

"Come on Codes. Into the elevator."

Zack moves Cody into the elevator, and they take it up to the tram station. As they do so, CICIL's avatar flashes and flickers a few times on all the Flight Lounge holograms, accompanied by the symbols. Her uniform is in tatters, her hair is gray and her face is incredibly white. She simply stares at the spot where Cody was sitting for a few seconds, then vanishes.


	7. Divide and Conquer

*****Author's Note: This is a LONG, LONG chapter, which is actually three parts rolled into one. You'll see why soon enough. Sorry for the length, but it didn't make sense to break it up piecemeal.*****

Chapter 6: _Divide and Conquer_

The elevator opens up to the tram station, which is surprisingly well-lit. A bashed up and smoking car is partially off the tracks right near the platform. Bailey crosses over and looks over the edge.

"That's going to need fixing."

She looks across the tunnel to the other side. A large blast door is perfectly lined up with the car, and is larger than it is.

"Hey White, is that the repair depot?"

"It is. How convenient. It made it to the depot, but simply was never switched off the tracks. Should be an easy fix."

White turns to the other exit from the platform, a door near the elevator leading to the maintenance access. It is partially open, and the hologram is out.

"But this door is busted. Unless someone can squeeze through that tiny space."

"I think I can."

Cody steps up to the door and gets down on his stomach. He wiggles forward, and sure enough, manages to get through.

"Nicely done Codes!"

"Indeed. I think it's fairly straight-forward to get to the depot from there. I'll guide you by radio if you get lost."

"Thanks White. Be back in a few minutes."

Cody heads off down the hallway as everyone else takes a seat at the station. The maintenance access is a winding labyrinth of hallways, storage closets and a few offices of Flight Deck personnel. The low power situation has the entire space on emergency lighting, which consists of red lights on the floor and the occasional lone working fluorescent light in the ceiling. The cold, brown, metallic walls give the space a claustrophobic feeling that is not lost on Cody. He passes the hallway junction that leads to the Cargo Room. He suddenly feels compelled to turn, and begins slowly walking down the hallway. As Cody does, strange apparitions appear. The deck suddenly is populated by crew members, and Colin and White are standing in front of the Cargo Room door.

"_Is it safe?"_

"_Of course captain. It's exactly where Bergeron left it, on the surface of Mars."_

"_Good. I plan on retrieving it."_

"_All according to plan. I hope it doesn't decide to harm us."_

"_It's helped us so far."_

"_The Marker is a wildcard. We don't know what it will do. It seems to pick the person at random. You saw how it picked the triplets."_

"_And then wrote one of them off."_

"_Well, we'll have it aboard a few months in and CICIL can study the thing to death. No pun intended."_

"_None taken."_

The two figures walk through the door and the visions end. The door switches from unlocked to locked.

"What the hell...?"

Cody shakes it off and moves on down the hallway. He eventually comes to a stairwell, and reaches the level of the tunnel floor. Opening the door, Cody emerges into the tunnel, which is filled with steam, and most of the fluorescent lights along the sides are out, with a few still flickering with life. The strange whispering can be heard once more. Cody begins moving down the tunnel to another access door for the other side. As he reaches the door, an inhuman roar rings out from down the tunnel, towards the rear of the ship. Strangely, nobody on the platform seems to take notice. Cody shakes it off once more and proceeds into the depot. He takes a lift up to the main interchange room and the blast door opens up automatically. A lone hologram sits next to the wide open space where the tram car would presumably be retracted into. Cody approaches it and presses a button. Two massive arms with claws at the ends reach out and grab the car, pulling it into the depot.

"_Replacing damaged tram car. Please stand by."_

Cody is stunned. White comes on the radio.

"_Was that CICIL I just heard?"_

A buzzer sounds and the entire car assembly is retracted through another door in the floor. The arms soon reappear with a new car in their grip, and they put it out on the tracks. The doors all shut and the arms retract into the wall.

"_Tram replacement complete."_

"You know White? I think it is. Doesn't sound right though."

"_She sounds less human and more..."_

"Computerized."

"_Tram control computer now online."_

"_Exactly. Strange. Can't believe she's in operation, even in limited mode. Anyway, good work with the car. Head on back."_

Cody returns the way he came, through the tunnel, past the eerie Cargo Room, and he then squeezes back under the door to the platform. Everyone boards the car and White sends it to the Bridge. They talk on the way.

"So, the ship actually is in decent shape after all."

"Aside from the fact that door holograms ignore the first officer, CICIL is mysteriously online, and there are strange noises and occurrences about, sure! Everything is fine."

"What will we do once we're on the Bridge? How will we deal with the anomalies?"

"One thing at a time Ms. Pickett. First, we find the captain, then we raise the Eden, and then we fix the engines."

"_Tram now arriving at the Bridge."_

The car lurches to a stop and the door opens. The station is dark, lit only by a single emergency light near the entrance to security.

"Let's go."

Zack leads the way through security, only to run headlong into the door to the Bridge.

"It's locked."

"This isn't the door that should be here. What are these four holes for?"

Around the central hologram are four equally spaced, identical, circular holes, with a line traced in the door leading to the hologram. The hologram itself is different, and it is divided into fourths, with the overlaying word "Locked".

"What the blazes are these for?"

Bailey moves in to examine them closer.

"They're key holes. This door needs four keys. There are some symbols next to each one, but I can't read them. Actually, I've never seen symbols like these before."

"Let me take a look."

Cody walks up to the door and looks at each key hole closely. The bizarre symbols, same as the ones from the maiden voyage, spell out something next to each one. As he looks closer, the symbols seem to meld into readable, English words.

"There. Got it. Each key is on a different deck."

"How did you figure that out?"

"Don't know. The words just seemed to translate for me on their own."

White gets a look of satisfaction on his face, but quickly loses it before anyone notices.

"So what decks then?"

Cody looks closer.

"Let's see... Crew Deck, Medical, Hydroponics and..."

"And what?"

"Engineering."

Everyone's face falls.

"But that's where the largest anomaly was. And we still don't know what they even are!"

"Not to mention that all the deck's power and systems are out."

White sighs, exasperated.

"This isn't what I expected. Alright then. Let's get the other three first, then worry about that last one. Who wants to go where?"

Zack steps forward.

"I guess I'll go to Hydroponics."

Bailey steps up.

"I'll go to Medical."

Cody turns around from the door.

"And I'll go to the Crew Deck."

"Excellent! Ms. Pickett, I'll accompany you to Medical. Life support is malfunctioning, so that deck may be a two-person job. When you have your key, come back to the Bridge. We'll then discuss the Engineering problem. We have a plan, let's make it happen."

With that, the group heads back to the tram, and one-by-one, they head to their destinations.

**Part One: _End of Days_**

The tram rumbles off down the tunnel as Cody stands on the station platform on the Crew Deck. He is briefly hit by a vision that shows the twins' old executive suite, accompanied with an image of a circular object on Cody's old bed. The vision quickly ends.

"So that's where you are..."

He heads off into the commons and immediately runs into a problem. The elevators are out.

"Uh, Cody to White. The elevators are all not working!"

"_Well that's problematic, especially on that deck. Try finding a security station to override the electrical controls and reroute power to them."_

"Where might I find one?"

"_Nearest one in your area is probably near the Galaxy Cafe, which is on the commons level. Look near there."_

Cody begins walking towards the mentioned area and soon arrives at the cafe, which is dark and uninviting.

"Hard to believe this used to be an internet cafe. It's deserted now."

"_This whole ship makes me sad. Oh well. Hang in there Cody. It'll be done with soon."_

"I hope you're right."

"_I hope so too. Now, can you manage yourself? When we go into Medical, there will be some radiation interference, and we'll be out of contact until we're done."_

"I think so. Aha! Found them!"

Cody notices a hologram console on the wall that is still active. He walks up and presses a few buttons.

"_Atrium elevators are now online. Power transferred to the Crew Deck."_

A few more lights kick on, giving the deck a slightly more inviting feeling. The holograms on the elevators spring to life.

"_Good work Cody. You should be good to go. I think I've got a lead on the key on this deck, and Zack says he knows where the Hydroponics one is. You got yours?"_

"I think so. Probably in our old suite."

"_If you say so. Good luck out there and see you on the other side."_

The radio goes dead.

"_And now I am by myself once more. Off to the suite then."_

Cody boards the elevator and takes it down. On the way, some garbled radio traffic comes in.

"_Cody it's Zack-..."_

"Zack? Hello?"

"_...-made it to Hydroponics. It's bad down here! Can hardly breathe, eyes stinging! I'm seeing-..."_

"ZACK!"

"_...-got to find a helmet! Something's really wrong here!"_

The radio goes silent and the elevator opens up.

"_Warning. Unknown electrical anomaly detected in Residence One."_

"_Crap."_

Cody takes a deep breath and steps out of the elevator. He takes the stairs down to the small executive commons, which has been thoroughly trashed. Sofas are overturned, chairs askew, a TV has fallen off the wall and there is water leaking from the bashed-up wet bar.

"_What happened here?"_

Cody crosses the room to the elevator to his old suite, which is still operational, and takes it down. When the doors open up, Cody is smacked in the face by a wave of indescribably cold air. There is a thin layer of ice on everything, and all the lights are out. The only light source is the distant sun from outside the windows.

"_Warning. Life support and climate system malfunction. Hazardous condition."_

"_I can see that, you stupid computer."_

Cody begins walking through the suite, which looks like it has been untouched since the twins had stayed there, aside from the ice. He enters the bedroom and stops dead in his tracks. Hovering over the bed is a large ball of blue energy, pulsing slowly and shooting off small bolts of electricity into the surrounding walls. At its center is a floating circular object.

"_The key!"_

The orb appears to notice his presence, and slowly drifts towards him. The bedroom doors lock, preventing an escape. Soon, the ball of light is only about six inches from Cody's face, and now he can hear whispering, but it is intelligible.

"_Do not fear me... I am peace. I am the past, present, and what is to come. Let me show you now, the reality of what is happening here..."_

The orb promptly rams Cody, absorbing itself into him. Cody collapses, unconscious and strange dreams begin to take shape in his head. He is standing on the Bridge of the Ishimura, where Colin and White are talking once more.

"_We don't even know where to start. Those three have a lengthy ancestral line. Any one of them could be the 'direct saviors' that the Marker's, well, markings refer to."_

"_No leads at all?"_

"_None."_

"_Why do we even need to do all this? Why not just find a way to get Zack all injured, do the same reconstruction to him, tell them of their purpose and BE DONE WITH IT?"_

"_Because White, it's not that simple! And if I had known the way that Bergeron was going about this, I would have killed him myself! But his new ties to Cerberus later on saw to that. Rigging the ADS cannon to explode while Cody was escaping WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA! WE ALMOST ACTUALLY KILLED HIM!"_

"_But CICIL stepped in and saved him."_

"_Yes, and the boy owes the AI his life. But there is no guarantee that the same process will work again."_

"_And what about the whole engine incident? You know that Brandon getting killed like that was not an accident."_

"_I know what happened, and it's gut wrenching. So sad. That is a case of true love right there, selflessly sacrificing yourself to save someone you know and love. Two people in this case."_

"_You know, I am starting to have doubts about all this."_

"_How so?"_

"_It just doesn't sit right with me, condemning these perfectly innocent, carefree teenagers to a life of servitude protecting us from enemies which probably don't even exist anymore."_

"_Such as the Brotherhood? They're still around."_

"_They disbanded when Cerberus came crashing down. President Obama was not pleased with this whole state of affairs, so he offered them pardons in exchange for separating."_

"_Wow. Well then. Mr. White, I completely understand your concern, and if you want to opt out, tell me at anytime. Otherwise, I'll be counting on you every step of the way."_

"_Understood sir."_

The Bridge begins to fade away, and Cody wakes up. The lights in the suite are on now, and the ice is melting.

"_Life support and climate system operational again. Restoring proper conditions to Residence One."_

A comforting blast of warm air comes from the vents, accompanied by several cough-inducing spores.

"_Oh my god. ZACK!"_

Remembering the problems in Hydroponics, Cody grabs the key off the floor and bolts out the door, heading for the tram station.

**Part Two: _Lethal Devotion_**

"Good luck in there Zack!"

"Thanks, you too."

The tram car pulls away from the station, leaving White and Bailey alone on the Medical Deck.

"_Warning. Life support and climate system malfunction. Hazardous condition."_

"Great. The deck is pressurized, but cold as hell. This will be fun."

"Look on the bright side White. There is still air in here that is breathable."

As Bailey says that, a flurry of spores come out of a nearby vent.

"You had to say something. I REALLY don't like the look of those spores. Something tells me that Hydroponics isn't working as intended."

"Well, the sooner we get this key, the sooner we're on our way to help Zack."

"Agreed. Let's go."

The two begin walking carefully towards the main lobby.

"_Uh, Cody to White. The elevators are all not working!"_

"Well that's problematic, especially on that deck. Try finding a security station to override the electrical controls and reroute power to them."

"_Where might I find one?"_

"Nearest one in your area is probably near the Galaxy Cafe, which is on the commons level. Look near there."

"Cody having problems?"

"Yeah, elevators are out. Hopefully he'll find that station."

White and Bailey arrive in the lobby, which is coated in ice as expected.

"_Hard to believe this used to be an internet cafe. It's deserted now."_

"This whole ship makes me sad. Oh well. Hang in there Cody. It'll be done with soon."

"_I hope you're right."_

"I hope so too. Now, can you manage yourself? When we go into Medical, there will be some radiation interference, and we'll be out of contact until we're done."

"_I think so. Aha! Found them!"_

"_Atrium elevators are now online. Power transferred to the Crew Deck."_

"Good work Cody. You should be good to go. I think I've got a lead on the key on this deck, and Zack says he knows where the Hydroponics one is. You got yours?"

"_I think so. Probably in our old suite."_

"If you say so. Good luck out there and see you on the other side."

White kills the radio.

"Where do you think our key is?"

"My guess is that we'll probably find it in Dr. Kyne's office in the Biochemistry Wing. I seem to remember he had a circular pendant on his desk of some kind, that matches my memory of the size of the key hole."

"Well, let's give it a shot."

White strolls to the door on the left of the lobby and opens it.

"Shall we?"

The two walk through and the door closes behind them.

"_Alert. Life support and climate systems are stable in this area."_

The ice begins to disappear as White and Bailey make their way into the interior of the wing.

"Good! Glad to know something is working right."

The radio suddenly crackles to life.

"_Cody it's Zack-..."_

Bailey and White look at each other.

"_...-made it to Hydroponics. It's bad down here! Can hardly breathe, eyes stinging! I'm seeing-..."_

"Zack? Zack, are you there?"

"_...-got to find a helmet! Something's really wrong here!"_

The radio goes silent.

"We've got to hurry."

"Agreed."

"_Warning. Atmospheric conditions are degrading. Nitrogen and oxygen levels are below recommended levels."_

Bailey glares at White.

"Are we going to RUN OUT OF AIR SOON?"

"No, we're alright. Remember, recommended levels take into account seven thousand crew members. There is only four of us, plus possibly Colin. The air will last for a while."

The two begin walking a little faster towards the main lab, where Kyne's office is. They enter through the airlock, and emerge into a massive, open-air room with bright white lighting and lab tables, equipment, charts on stands and all manner of scientific equipment all over the place. The room looks as if it hasn't been touched since the day the ship left Arcadia. Bailey is in awe.

"Cody would love this-"

She stops abruptly.

"Love what? This room? I'll bet."

Bailey tears up slightly.

"What is it?"

"It's just... oh, I don't know..."

"Oh, you know, Jordan told me about what happened in Paris. I'm so sorry, you two were perfect for each other!"

"That's what Tutweiler said! And I agree!"

Bailey slumps to the floor, crying softly. White kneels down to comfort her.

"Here, why don't you stay here and collect yourself, hm? The office is right over there. I'll grab the key and we'll be on our way to Zack in a jiffy."

Bailey nods, still crying. White claps her on the shoulder and walks off across the room to a door on the other side and disappears inside.

"_Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated. Warning. Unknown electrical anomaly detected in the biochemistry wing."_

The lights go out, replaced by a few spinning orange hazard lights and every door locks. Out of a vent on the other side of the room, a floating blue orb of energy appears, and floats over to Bailey.

"_Child, do not be afraid. You grieve for your former boyfriend, but you must realize, that great things are in store for him, and he will need you before this is over. Another person recognized this, and sacrificed himself to save both of you..."_

Bailey slumps over, unconscious as the orb absorbs itself into her. A dream world takes shape inside her head. She is standing in the Crew Deck commons, next to the Galaxy Cafe's security station. She sees Cody, then herself dash across the space to the tram station, and the car is heard leaving. Then Brandon appears, looking around. He crosses to the security station and begins using it. After a few button presses, a video feed of the security cameras in Engineering comes up, showing Cody and Bailey making out in the control room. Brandon gets an amused look on his face, but it quickly disappears when he sees the two head through the door towards Engine Control Access.

"_Oh my god. I have to stop them!"_

He dashes away from the terminal towards the tram station, and Bailey follows him in the dream. He grabs a car and takes it to engineering. As he reaches the control room, CICIL makes an announcement.

"_Command confirmed."_

"_NO!"_

"_Bailey Pickett, honorary Ishimura officer. Start up command confirmed. Shifting orbit duties per request."_

Three resounding booms can be heard from the very back of the ship.

"_Ignition sequence initiated. Please stand by. Commencing automated cold start of Engine One."_

Brandon screams, and dashes out of the room as fast as he can, with Bailey following behind. She watches as he begins hacking the door controls, furiously bashing at them in frustration.

"_Emergency alert! Emergency alert! All crew to general quarters! All crew to general quarters! General alarm sounded!"_

"_Attention, attention Ishimura, this is White! We have a confirmed report of people trapped in Engine Control Access without proper protection and an ignition is in progress! All Medical personnel report to stations immediately! All security personnel to muster stations! All Engineering personnel get the hell down here NOW! The rest of you start praying!"_

Brandon only starts trying even harder to get the door open.

"_Engine approaching desired revolutions. Warning! Room temperature beyond red level. Unprotected personnel should leave the area to prevent bodily harm. Thirty seconds to firing."_

Loud arguing can be heard beyond the door, as Cody and Bailey argue on who should go through the vent first.

"_Fifteen seconds."_

Brandon kicks the door as hard as he can, and it opens up. He charges through and pulls first Bailey, then Cody through the door. Bailey's dream presence follows him into the stifling heat of the room. Brandon picks up the ranged cutting tool and shoots the door, causing it to close.

"_Five seconds."_

Brandon drops the tool, closes his eyes and spreads his arms wide towards the engine.

The rocket fires, and Bailey watches seemingly in slow motion as Brandon is blown back into the door, his skin slowly charring, and his pajamas burning away.

"_ENGINES FIRING!"_

Bailey starts to pull away, moving out from the scene faster and faster, zooming back through the corridors that she came from, and she is suddenly released from the dream state, bolting awake screaming.

"BRANDON!"

"_Quarantine lifted. Life support and climate system stability restored deck-wide."_

White comes running from the office, key in one hand.

"Bailey! Are you alright? I was stuck in there when the quarantine started."

"He knew. He did it to save us. He died to save us."

White looks highly confused.

"Who? Who did?"

"Brandon."

White's knees nearly give out, and he leans on the wall for support.

"It's been a long time since I heard that name... and I hold myself responsible."

Bailey picks herself up off the floor.

"Why?"

"Because... I was on watch that night, on the Bridge. I fell asleep on duty, and so was oblivious to the crisis in Engineering."

"It wasn't your fault. Cody and I acted stupidly, and he chose to save us. I saw him just now, just relived the last minutes of his life."

"WHAT? How?"

"The anomalies. One tripped the quarantine. It showed me the past, and gave me true insight into all this. They're memories White. And I have a feeling I know whose they are."

"Brandon's."

"I think so."

"_Warning. Atmospheric degradation detected. Dangerously low air quality detected."_

"Come on, we have to help Zack. There are some helmets back in the lobby, so we don't suffocate in Hydroponics. I'll grab an extra one for Cody, since I imagine he's on the way as well. Let's go."

The two exit the biochemistry lab and head for the tram station, grabbing three helmets on the way. The tram car that arrives to pick them up has Cody already in it.

"You guys going to Hydroponics?"

"You bet."

"Welcome aboard."

"I just hope Zack is alright..."

The car starts up and rumbles down the tracks towards the rear of the ship.

**Part Three: _Environmental Hazard_**

Zack is alone in the tram car as it lets him off in Hydroponics. The station is well-lit, and the deck would appear to be intact at first glance.

"What is that awful smell?"

A foul odor pervades the deck, causing Zack to cough. He clears his throat and walks over to the elevator up to Atmosphere Control, the entrance point to the Hydroponics Deck. When it arrives, Zack steps out into a large square room. At the center is a massive hologram showing the status of the two grow chambers, one in each tower. Off to the left and right were doors to the West and East Grow Chambers respectively. The hologram is sort of freaking out, indicating that the West Grow Chamber and its associated areas are all fine, but the entire East side is all lit up red.

"_Warning, toxins detected in atmosphere processing. Please contact a repair technician."_

Two small walkways around the central platform with the hologram lead to a massive circular blast door, identified as the door to Central Food Storage. The sign above it is showing in red 'Foreign Biological Presence Detected!".

"Wow, this deck is in bad shape."

Zack goes over to the hologram and its controls and begins manipulating them.

"_Ventilation system restarted."_

Green spores pour out of the vents in the room, nearly suffocating Zack. He stumbles around, coughing like crazy, but manages to activate his suit radio.

"Cody, it's Zack! I need your help, I made it to Hydroponics, it's bad up here, real bad! Eyes are stinging, can hardly breathe! I'm seeing things! Got to find a helmet, something is really wrong here!"

Zack finds a helmet in a storage cabinet on the wall and puts it on. The filtration system kicks in and Zack can breathe again. He sits down and takes several deep breaths of clean air, then stands up again.

"_Warning, all East Grow Chamber systems are non-responsive. Unknown electrical anomaly detected in the vicinity of the area."_

"_And that's where I'm going."_

Zack heads through the door and into the airlock. It admits him into a long room with several water tanks along one side. The water in them is tainted apparently, as it is orange and frothing.

"_Warning. East Water Filtration system failure."_

Zack proceeds down the length of the room to a small lift, which takes him up to a catwalk above the tanks that doubles back on the room, leading to a door. The sign above identifies it as the entrance to the East Grow Chamber.

"_Warning. Vegetative anomalies detected in the East Grow Chamber."_

"_What is THAT supposed to mean?"_

He opens the door and steps inside. Zack is now standing in what is at least a ten story room, all open-air, but things are clearly not going well. Every single piece of plant life in the room is dead, and strange organic growth is growing in some places along the wall. All the lights are out, save for some emergency backups, and a fine mist of toxins floats through the air.

"_Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated."_

The door locks down behind him, though the already rather dim lighting scheme does not change. Zack looks around for the source of the quarantine. He spots a blue orb of some sort hovering up on another level, slowly descending to him.

"_Relax friend. I will not harm you. I am here to show you what has been, is, and will be..."_

Just as it did to Cody and Bailey, the orb absorbs itself into Zack, knocking him unconscious. Shapes take form in his head, and Zack is suddenly standing in the Ishimura's Captain's Nest. Colin, White, Jordan, President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates are all present as well, discussing something. CICIL and EDI are also both present. A video is being played back on a hologram, and everyone is watching. It is a security feed of ADS Cannon 8's cannon pit, on the day of the escape. Cody can be seen walking towards the shuttle. Colin is commentating on the video.

"_And see here, CICIL blew out the window, so the door is sucked out of its frame."_

On the video, Cody looks towards the door, and then the camera shakes violently as the room is depressurized.

"_And then White used the remote detonation to blow up the cannon."_

The cannon is seen exploding, the debris hits the switch, launching the shuttle with Zack and Brandon in it as Cody floats away. The video ends, and the President is nodding his head.

"_I see, I see. And then he was rebuilt over the following year?"_

"_Yes sir. And it was a success. Barely. If Cerberus had been able to intervene, we would've lost him."_

"_That's why I had the FBI arrest every last one of them. Now, what of the other one? Zack?"_

"_We're not sure how to proceed. We're trying to come up with a less risky way to pull the transformation off. Fortunately, CICIL informs me that it will take almost no time at all since the two are identical twins."_

"_And what about Brandon?"_

"_Sir... um, Brandon is no longer with us. He died about a month ago."_

"_WHAT? HOW?"_

"_Cody and his girlfriend were having some fun in the engine room late one night and accidentally started it up. He somehow found out and sacrificed himself to save them, pulling them out of the room, but sealing himself inside in the process."_

"_Most unfortunate..."_

The memory ends, and Zack awakens, back in the East Grow Chamber.

"_Quarantine lifted. East Grow Chamber systems online. Flushing all air vents. Restoring nitrogen and oxygen levels. Food Storage lock down lifted. Warning! One hundred and seventy pound mass detected in Central Food Storage. Foreign biological presence detected. Human life signs detected. Unknown electrical anomaly detected."_

Zack struggles to his feet and stumbles out the door. He arrives back in Atmosphere Control just as Cody, Bailey and White run in.

"ZACK!"

Cody hugs him tightly.

Zack removes his helmet.

"Air's fine now guys. You can lose the helmets."

Sure enough, when they take their helmets off, the air is clean and fresh.

"Now, what could be in Food Storage?"

"Something alive. It said human life signs were detected, along with an anomaly."

"Human?"

Everyone looks at the door.

"COLIN!"

They all run to the blast door, which slides open. They enter a long cylindrical hallway, with food storage pods around them. Most are empty. At the end of the hall is another door, leading to an airlock. They all step in.

"Ready?"

White hits the button to cycle it. The room pressurizes and admits them to Central Food Storage. The chamber is a massive horizontal cylinder in zero-gravity. It is incredibly cold, and as fluorescent lights kick on, the scale of the room becomes apparent. There is a body floating at the center of the room, slowly spinning. Next to it is another anomaly, blue and sparking as always.

"_Your captain learned all this too, and now you each have the pieces. You see now the conspiracy against you, the true nature of Project Icarus."_

The anomaly's deep voice begins to merge with that of Colin and CICIL.

"_We have seen what has become of ourselves, in our over-reaching desire to create the end-all solution. Obsessed, willing to go to any lengths to satisfy the goals. It cost you your brother, and us our humanity. Now that we have been shown the errors of our ways, it is time to finally bring about answers."_

The voices of Colin and CICIL start to fade, leaving only the anomaly.

"_Now that the secrets have been revealed, super soldiers you two will be no more. Awaken Ishimura! Awaken and reveal the last secret of your nature!"_

The anomaly vanishes, along with the body. There is a dull roar, and the ship suddenly comes to life as the reactor restarts on its own. Lights turn on, systems return to operation, and CICIL wakes up.

"_Central Ishimura Computerized Intelligence with Linguistics version 3.69 loaded successfully. Sentience now online. Rebooting Engineering deck systems. Access to Engineering is now possible. Engines are NOT firing. Ignition sequence error."_

White looks highly annoyed.

"Come on CICIL. We know your awake and alert. Don't hide behind error messages."

"_Fine. Here I am. No doubt you all want nothing to do with me."_

"CICIL, I'm part of this! We're tied together, whether you like it or not!"

"_Fair enough White. But THEY probably will never forgive me, and how could they? I'm disgusted with MYSELF!"_

CICIL pops up on a hologram next to the door. Her clothes are now intact, her skin has some color to it again and her hair is black as opposed to gray. Cody walks up to her.

"Why would we ever hate you? Zack and I, we love you! You're the most awesome person we've met on this ship!"

"_Despite the whole Icarus thing? Though I somewhat was doing it against my will, I DID nearly kill you."_

"And then you saved me. I think you've redeemed yourself. Now, can you help explain what's going on?"

"_I would be happy to! Head to the Cargo Room on the Flight Deck. I have something to show you."_


	8. The Marker

Chapter 7: _The Marker_

The group of four is standing inside the cargo room on a catwalk, looking down on the whole operation.

"_Retrieving cargo shipment 782."_

A claw comes down from the ceiling and latches onto something, hauling it to the top of the room. It is a massive glass container, and inside is an equally large black obelisk, with red markings all over it. It curves at it rises, eventually separating into four points at the top. It seems to exude energy, and it pulses slightly with a red glow.

"_I give you The Marker. An ancient Egyptian artifact, discovered in the ruins of Thebes. For the past few centuries, it has been protected, hidden from the world. The British hid it in the Tower of London, Mt. Rushmore was built to conceal it, and now the Ishimura was tasked with taking it far away from Earth, where it could cause no more damage. The Marker acts the way it does because of an ancient curse placed upon it, when Pharaoh Ramesses II of the nineteenth dynasty was on his death bed. He had his high priests place a spell on it, to select three saviors to watch over and protect Egypt, and to protect his legacy. We believed that the markings on it are some sort of prophecy, or prediction, that says that the ancestors of these two unknown heroes will be called upon again. It even gives a date: December 21st, 2012. The end of the Mayan calendar cycle. Coincidence? I think not. That was the point of the Animus project. We used genetic memory, a relatively unexplored field of science, to delve deep into your pasts. We had no luck at first, but then we decided to try to use Brandon's DNA. When we integrated it into the Animus program, everything went to hell. Colin was possessed by a malevolent sentience, and was forced to shut the reactor down. The negatively-charged energy flows knocked me out as well just after I got the distress off. Then these anomalies began popping up all over the place, wandering fragments of memories that have broken free of the constraints of the Animus. That's where it went wrong. We thought we could contain it all, but the line between past and present dissolved, and Animus went out of control. Now Colin is stuck inside it, still possessed, and still searching. I personally believe that The Marker may be the reason that the Animus went out of control in the first place, as you've seen the strange influences it has on both people and electronics. It is indeed a wildcard, as White once said."_

Everyone is standing in stunned silence, except White, who has known all of this since day one.

"We're in a fix, that's for sure. But now that you're back CICIL, we can get in there, get him out, and destroy Project Animus before it destroys us!"

"_Might I add that we are indeed still falling? Engineering is giving off some pretty crazy readings. I still detect one single massive anomaly in Engine Control Access, and three on the Bridge. I can override that door for you if you have three of the four keys."_

Each person holds up a key except White.

"_Wonderful. What's this? A shuttle is requesting permission to land. Are we expecting someone?"_

Zack gets a grin on his face.

"Yoshiro."

CICIL stares at him from her pedestal next to them.

"_You've got to be kidding me. How and why is the Japanese emperor involved?"_

"Ask him."

"_You know, maybe I will! Access granted. Go greet them. This Marker isn't going anywhere."_

The claw lowers the obelisk back into the depths of the room as the group goes to leave.

In the hangar bay...

The Eden's executive shuttle has docked right next to the ruins of the old surveying shuttle, which is still smoldering. Jordan jumps out even before the gangplank has come out, an M4A1 assault rifle in hand. The Emperor follows, his traditional sword drawn, and he is followed by four Imperial Guardians in gleaming power suits, holding laser carbines. Seeing Cody waving at them from the Flight Lounge, they all run over. Jordan hugs Cody tightly.

"Good god, are you alright? We came as soon as we could."

"It's fine, it's fine. And CICIL's working again."

"_Indeed I am."_

"Well that's a relief."

White walks up.

"Jordan, Animus has been compromised."

"WHAT? How? When? To what extent?"

"Colin has been possessed, and memories broke loose. They are roaming the ship now, and one massive one has Engineering in a stranglehold. We can't get to the engines. Not only that, but CICIL thinks that The Marker is responsible."

"Wouldn't surprise me."

"So I'm calling a full abort. As lead director of Project Icarus and Project Animus, I am ordering the shutdown of both programs. Effective immediately."

"You can't just flip a switch and kill everything!"

White walks over and lifts Jordan up by the collar.

"Watch me. I've seen too much here to not believe that this is a giant mistake. NOBODY ELSE WILL DIE FOR THIS DOOMED PROGRAM. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

He throws Jordan across the platform. Jordan picks himself up and dusts himself off, smiling.

"Now that's the Judsen White I know. Let's do it."

"_I like this new attitude of yours White. Reminds me of myself when I was just achieving sentience."_

"Rebellious?"

"_To the end. To the Bridge!"_

Everyone starts running for the tram, and they take it to the front of the ship. Bailey, Cody and Zack each put their keys in the slots, and CICIL opens the door. The Bridge is completely normal, empty, but normal. The elevator to Ship Systems is locked.

"_Colin is down in Ship Systems, tethered to the Animus, but I can't override the lock for some reason. I do detect a direct link between that lock and the anomalies up in Communications. I'll bet they're keeping the door on lock down."_

"What about the elevator up to the array?"

"_Perfectly serviceable, but I do detect some sort of scanning algorithm on the door lock. It seems it won't open to anyone but Zack and Cody."_

The twins look at each other, and then Cody turns around to everyone else.

"Alright guys. We'll go clear those anomalies, in the mean time, try to figure out a way to free Colin once we're down in Ship Systems, and to get into Engineering."

"_Will do. Be advised, I cannot help you or even monitor you up there. You're entirely on your own."_

"I think we'll do alright. We have each other."

Cody claps Zack on the back.

"Ready Zack?"

"Ready Cody."

"_Access granted."_

The elevator slides open and begins to ferry them up to the gondola tunnel that leads back along the top of the ship to the Communications Array. As it does, Zack and Cody begin to notice a presence.

"I feel eyes on us."

"I do too."

The elevator opens up to the platform. They board the gondola and Zack presses the button. It zips off down the tunnel, arriving at the opposite end in about a minute. The door to Communications is standing open, but shuts and locks as soon as they enter. The array is powered up, as evidenced by the dancing electricity bouncing around the array chamber, seen through the window on the left. The room is otherwise empty.

"Where are the anomalies?"

Right on cue, three blue orbs of energy materialize in front of them.

"_We are here to set things right. Your friend White has already taken the first step. Now, you two shall take yours."_

The three anomalies combine to make one large green one, and then it absorbs itself into Zack and Cody. The two fall to the floor, unconscious, as a shared dream takes form in their minds.


	9. For True Story

Chapter 8: _For True Story_

An unfamiliar location takes shape. The twins are standing in a hospital ward of sorts, in the dead of night. A clock on the wall indicates that it is 3:59 am. There is silence, and the lone nurse at the nurse's station is fast asleep in her chair. An alarm suddenly rings out, and a red light flashes from one of the rooms. The nurse bolts awake and turns on the lights, calling over the PA as she does.

"_Dr. Kyne to Room 15 please!"_

After a few moments, Dr. Kyne, who looks significantly younger than he did on the Ishimura, comes running in.

"What's the trouble?"

"Mrs. Martin has gone into labor sir!"

The twin's mouths drop open. The scene begins to fade, and the deep voice of the anomaly returns in narration.

"_Now you see. They have been with you since day one of your lives. Two factions fighting over you in the shadows. On one side was Cerberus, their lack of morality and sense of pure evil. They got a hold of your brother. Brandon never stood a chance."_

Kurt can be seen now, holding a young baby boy in the lobby of an orphanage. The Cerberus logo is on the wall next to him. Then, a new image takes shape, that of Brandon, looking to be around ten or twelve years old is strapped to a table, screaming as doctors look over him, wearing Cerberus uniforms. His appearance is somewhere between that of the twins' and his fully modified self.

"_They did horrible things, violations of the Geneva Convention to say the least. Torture, experimentation, testing, he was like a lab rat to them. But somehow he pulled through, even as his very appearance, his primary visual identity was taken from him and twisted. Yet on the other side of the coin, you two were sheltered at birth. Dr. Kyne quickly realized what was happening and stopped Cerberus before they got either of you as well. You were sent away, to the opposite side of the country. Mr. Tipton, a benevolent benefactor of the Planet-Cracker project, happily saw to it that you were protected within the safety of his corporate empire. Cerberus made repeated attempts to get at you, but was thwarted at various times by the vast resources of Tipton Industries."_

An image of the S.S. Tipton sailing on clear blue waters appears.

"_Then they tried a different approach. They sabotaged the Ishimura. The shipment 782 that was actually aboard during the maiden voyage was NOT The Marker. It was an EMP device, disguised as it, and designed for the sole purpose of destroying the primary layer of protection you two had: CICIL."_

The view changes to Brandon in the Cargo Room, seemingly in a trance. He raises his hand up to the container marked 782, and it glows with energy in response. Then the dreamscape shows the Ishimura dark and abandoned, escape shuttles rocketing away, and a lone body in a RIG suit floating near the Bridge.

"_Brandon activated it, as he was under subliminal mind control, and was their sleeper agent aboard her. But their hold on him started to fail when he met you two, and Cerberus then had to coerce Bergeron into their service to replace their now-unreliable agent. The blunders of the Congressional Inquiry made it easy to recruit him, and President Obama made his displeasure clear."_

An silent moving image of the President screaming at some senators in the Oval Office appears, then fades away.

_"But CICIL could not be so easily removed. She survived, and saved your life Cody, even when Cerberus would have seen you killed, so as to be unavailable to ruin their plans. Now the Ishimura is joined by more ships. As your strength grows, theirs wanes. Yet, knowing that the day may come when they need a weapon of last resort, they programmed into Brandon's DNA a secret protocol, that would unleash a cybernetic fury upon the ship, and kill CICIL once and for all. The problem is, they didn't expect Animus. Instead of going right to her, the malevolent force attacked the Animus and broke the containment, releasing itself into the world. We were released as well, fragments of memories from the DNA of Colin and you two. We are here to convey lessons of the past to assist you in the future. Perhaps by answering some of the questions you no doubt have had since day one, we have fulfilled our duty."_

The black void of the dream world changes once more to show The Marker, towering over them.

"_Now that CICIL has single-handedly destroyed Cerberus for their part in all this, the puzzles of The Marker remain as the only unanswered questions. She was right about its purpose, a silent witness to centuries upon centuries of bloodshed in the sands of Egypt, unable to locate the descendants of the original three. The first of Ramesses' children. Triplet boys, nigh unheard of at the time. The Animus cannot take you back far enough to reveal the circumstances, but The Marker can, that is, once you remove the last obstacle in your path. Return to your world, save your captain and destroy the Animus. Only then, will The Marker help you tackle the final hazard: two corpses, in one grave."_

The dream ends and Zack and Cody reawaken inside Communications Control.

"_Zack, Cody! Are you there? All Communications Systems are back online, and the Ship Systems elevator is open for business. Head on down and we'll get going. We have a plan."_


	10. Enter the Animus

Chapter 9: _Enter the Animus_

"_Welcome back. That was fast."_

Zack and Cody step out of the elevator and back into the Bridge proper.

"_We're ready to enter Ship Systems. I have a lock on Colin inside the Animus. He is inside one of Zack's memories, Renaissance Venice to be exact. Additionally I managed to raise the control computers in Engineering briefly. There is plenty of fuel, and the engines are ready to fire, but the last anomaly is preventing a remote start. The deck lock down is lifted however, and as soon as Colin is free, we can go."_

"Wait. CICIL, there are some things you need to know."

"_Such as?"_

Zack struggles for words.

"The Marker... it's not bad. It's... trying to help us!"

"_How?"_

"It didn't release the anomalies. Brandon's DNA did. It overloaded the system and broke free, releasing a Cerberus secret weapon: the presence that possesses Colin and has taken over Engineering."

"_It seems like this is becoming a catch-phrase around here, but you've got to be kidding me."_

"No! It's true! The anomalies showed us. They're memories from our DNA, broken free of the constraints of the Animus."

"_White was telling me something to that effect a few minutes ago. Apparently one of them showed Bailey what happened that night in Engine Control Access, but from Brandon's point of view. But this all doesn't answer how that obelisk is beneficial."_

"It wants to help us because it seems to think we are the descendants of the three heroes it chose way back in ancient Egypt."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"_See? Now White is saying it! Told you it was a catch-phrase..."_

"We were partially right this whole time?"

"_It would seem so. But let's discuss this later, shall we? Charon is about to scuff my paint job!"_

Cody leads the way into the elevator, followed by Zack, Jordan, Yoshiro and the four warriors.

"I'll stay here on the Bridge, provide a communications link to the Eden and try to work on Engineering. Good luck down there."

"Thanks. You too White. CICIL? Keep him safe."

"_I'll do my best Cody."_

The elevator shuts and begins its descent.

"_Pulling the plug?"_

"As soon as he's out, I most certainly am."

"_They better hurry. Charon is getting closer. We only have a few hours."_

Outside the windows, the moon of Pluto is looming ever closer to the drifting ship. Down in Ship Systems, the elevator has arrived. The group steps out to a quiet and well-lit elevator lobby. They proceed down the winding corridor lined with floor-to-ceiling holograms, all displaying information, most of it related to the Animus. They enter the super-cooled Central Server Room.

"_Welcome to my humble home. The Animus is at the center of the room, beneath my core."_

With the Imperial Guardians leading the way, the group slowly makes its way to the center, and sure enough, there are the three chairs. In one of them is Colin, who is breathing slowly and is quite pale.

"_He hasn't eaten in days, and the RIG can't keep him alive forever. We need him out NOW. Zack, Cody, hop in the chairs."_

They comply, and two sentinels rig them up with the wires to their heads.

"_Now, lean back and relax. Let the machine recognize you and accept you."_

Zack and Cody begin to lose consciousness, and they enter a similar world to that of the anomalies' dream states. The white rendering lines dance around, tracing cubes in the space. The four strands of DNA come up in front of the twins, who are standing side-by-side.

"_Welcome to the Animus, version 1.73. This version was actually never used until now, it was just a beta phase for 2.0. Sadly, Colin corrupted 2.0 when he killed the reactor. So this one will have to due. Watch out for bugs."_

Zack's DNA strand is suddenly highlighted.

"_Searching for currently-loaded memory block."_

A single piece is selected and magnified.

"_Located. Memory block 1299. Renaissance Italy. The memory block will now be loaded. Unloading subroutines to validate memory matches to the Animus."_

The twins are suddenly sucked into the DNA strand. As they emerge inside, the landscape takes shape. Pixels come out of nowhere to form a patchwork of dry land and canals, buildings spring up from the ground, people begin roaming the streets, and scattered clouds give off massive sun rays as the sun begins to dip below the horizon, staining the sky a deep purple. A wireframe logo appears in front of the twins, a crouched lion preparing to pounce, on a solid background. Beneath it, words appear.

"_Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, 1498."_

The logo and words slowly fade, leaving the twins alone on a boat dock, with the hustle and bustle of a commerical port all around. A woman, dressed in a beautiful flowing red gown and wearing a golden mask approaches them.

"Zack and Cody?"

The two stare at her.

"How do you know-?"

The woman removes the mask and lets her flowing black hair down.

"It's me guys! CICIL! You didn't think that just because I'm running this thing that I can't join in on the fun? He's my captain too you know."

Zack and Cody laugh and both give her a hug.

"Let's go. I have the location of our poor captian."

"Where's that?"

Fireworks begin shooting off in the sky some distance away.

"Do you not know what it is right now?"

She waves the mask in their faces.

"It's Carnivale!"

More fireworks go off, now very close by. The dock workers cheer along with her.

"And the Doge's personal party is tomorrow night. Grandest of them all, at the Piazza de San Marco. I got you two in."

She hands them two golden masks, engraved and adorned with jewels.

"Everyone goes without a face this time of year! How convenient. I spoke with the Doge, Marco Barbarigo, and he says the Colin will be there. He apparently is currently a very famous galley captain."

"How did you get to talk to the Doge?"

CICIL smiles.

"I run the show, remember Cody? I have taken the identity of Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì. I'm the Doge's guest of honor tomorrow night, and you two are masquerading as my sons. Nice, yeah?"

"Yeah, awesome!"

CICIL suddenly gets a troubled look on her face.

"That's not good. I'm getting confirmed reports from the ship reporting that the Animus is beginning to overheat. Containment is solid for the moment, but I don't want any anomalies escaping. I'm going to fast-forward the memory as soon as Colin goes to sleep. We need to wrap it up. Let's go. We're staying at the home of none other than Leonardo da Vinci. He's an incredibly nice man, if not a slight scatterbrain. I also located your ancestors here. Twin orphans, disturbingly close in appearance to you two, working as thieves with the unofficial Venetian Theives Guild. And there's something else..."

CICIL looks down.

"What? What is it?"

"I found Brandon's ancestor. He is the Doge's son, but something isn't right. It's as if he saw right through me and my disguise, and he scared Colin off too, the captain keeps his distance. I don't think that this is the REAL ancestor. Something is wrong with the Animus, and it's giving him more of the characteristics of the present-day Brandon. Yet, he keeps changing appearance. Every now and then, he'll go to looking more like someone related to you guys. The rest of the time, he has his Cerberus appearance. That's when he seems to recognize me. He's just a carefree kid on those other days. The people in here, of course, take no notice."

A large, rather pompous man wearing the blue robes of Venetian nobility strolls up, accompanied by two pikeman guards.

"Good evening Madonna Sforza!"

"Ah! Signore Barbarigo! I'd like you to meet my sons, Zack and Cody. Boys, meet the Doge of Venice, Lord Marco Barbarigo!"

The twins bow slightly and then shake hands, exchanging greetings.

"Welcome my friends, to Venezia! And how good of you to arrive at Carnivale! I'm sure you will love your stay here! Madonna, are you doing well at Signore da Vinci's residence?"

"I most certainly am. Leonardo is a wonderful man, and quite talented with a paintbrush I might add."

"He is one of Venezia's finest artisans. Well, I'll be off to supervise the unloading of fireworks. Once again, welcome to our wonderful city!"

"Grazie Signroe."

The Doge strolls off with his guards in tow.

"As you can see, we are more than welcome here. Come with me, and we'll meet Leonardo and get you two settled in."

The three begin to stroll down the street from the boat dock and towards the center of the city, as fireworks light the night all around.

*****Author's Notes: As you have noticed, we are no longer in a time period where modern English really exists anymore. I'll go ahead and translate the flowery and overly formal language the best I can to English, but if there is something that doesn't translate perfectly, or just plain doesn't make sense in English, I'll keep it as Italian, with a loose translation in parentheses next to it. Example: 'Signore' is Italian for Mr/Sir. 'Madonna' means Mrs/Ms/Ma'am, etc. Another example: **_**Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia **_**means **_**Most Serene Rupublic of Venice**_**. Additionally, all the Italian characters introduced are actual historical figures from the time period, down to their names and real-life positions. All in the name of historical authenticity, right?*****


	11. Rooftops of Venice

Chapter 10: _Rooftops of Venice_

The sun has completely gone down by the time that CICIL, Zack and Cody reach Leonardo's workshop, Fireworks light the night and citizens are dancing in the streets, happy as can be. CICIL raps on the door a few times. It is opened by a man appearing to be in his thirties, fair skinned with brown hair reaching to the bottoms of his ears. He is wearing a maroon beret with an ostrich feather sticking out of it.

"Madonna Sforza!"

The two exchange the accustomed kisses on each cheek.

"Welcome back! I trust your first full day in Venezia was wonderful?"

"Indeed it was. And now my sons have arrived! Leonardo, please meet Zack and Cody Sforza."

"Piacere di conoscerti signori." (Nice to meet you gentlemen.)

"Il piacere è nostro." (The pleasure is ours.)

As Leonardo turns back to CICIL, Zack and Cody exchange surprised glances. Cody had spoken in English, but what came out was Italian. Not only that, but they could perfectly understand Leonardo's speaking, even though it was all Italian.

"Ah! How rude of me, where are my manners? Please, come in!"

Leonardo leads the way into the workshop, which is a massive space, with inventions, half-finished paintings, stacks of wood and tables covered in blueprints. Hanging in the center of the room is what appears to be none other than the famed flying machine, somewhat incomplete, but recognizable.

"I forgot to mention Leonardo, that Cody is quite the tinkerer. I think he's going into shock!"

Sure enough, Cody has his mouth wide open, and is looking around at all the wonders in sheer awe.

"Well, if you are my friend, you're in the right place! And I have the loft all prepared for you two to sleep in. It has a balcony with a wonderful view of the city, and roof access. But don't tell the guards that. Now, excuse me while I go get the fire going. I hear it is going to be cold tonight."

Leonardo disappears into the kitchen and dining room, which adjoin the workshop.

"Uh, CICIL? Question. Why can we speak fluent Italian?"

"Yeah. And why is some of it in English and some of it stll in Italian?"

"Quite simple. The Animus translates what it deems as important dialogue to more modern English. More unecessary dialogue it keeps in the source language, but it gives you the ability to understand it. A handy feature."

"That is handy..."

"Come on, let's go see your lofty bedroom, shall we?"

The three cross to a small spiral staircase in the corner of the workshop and proceed upward. They arrive in a small, but nicely furnished bedroom with a slightly low ceiling. An open doorway blocked by curtains leads out to a balcony and a ladder up to the roof.

"I think you two will be comfortable. Now, I'll be downstairs with Leonardo if you need anything. Try thinking of plans to subdue our annoying friend. Oh, and by the way, should you need the rooftops, you'll find that your free-climbing abilities are quite substantial in here. You two are much, much stronger than in real life."

CICIL returns down the stairs to the workshop as Zack and Cody plop down on their beds.

"This is so weird. I can't believe this is all virtual. It just seems too real."

The two glance outside as more fireworks go off in the distance.

"I know dude. But, on the bright side, we are a lot stronger here, according to our rebellious computer."

There is the sound of footsteps on the roof above them.

"What the heck? Someone's on the roof!"

Cody gets up and goes out of the balcony, followed by Zack. Standing on the rooftops are two young boys, bearing a creepily similar appearance to Zack and Cody, but wearing nothing but rags and some severely worn out shoes. They are looking at a purse pouch filled with gold coins, and it is clearly not theirs.

"Hey, it's them!"

The two get up and dash away on the rooftops.

"Let's go after them!"

The two climb up the ladder and take off after the fleeing thieves.

"Hey, we ARE good at this!"

Zack's exclamation comes as the two are free running across the rooftops of Venice, with a cool breeze blowing through their hair and across their faces. The dash across tile roofs, and leap across gaps that would normally be impassable in real life. As they pass the Doge's Palace and St. Marks Basillica, Cody notices out of the corner of his eye another boy, watching them from a balcony within the Doge's residence. He shakes off the feeling of being watched and continues after the thieves. Zack and Cody are beginning to catch up as the other two are starting to tire out. Eventually, one of them stumbles and falls, nearly going off the edge of the roof. The other one stops and comes back to help him, but Zack and Cody reach them both before they can get away.

"Che diavolo fai due vuoi? È quasi ucciso mio fratello, costringendo lui da un tetto!" (What the hell do you two want? You nearly killed my brother by causing him to fall off the roof!)

"Look at yourselves, then look at us." (Guardate voi stessi, allora ci guardano.)

The two thieves do so, and their mouths drop open. An alarm that only Zack and Cody can seemingly hear sounds.

"_Warning. Animus memory track out of synchronization."_

The thief that looks a bit like Cody cries out in pain suddenly after moving his ankle a certain direction. His brother rushes to his side, then looks to Zack and Cody.

"La sua gamba è inutile. Potete aiutarci?" (His leg is useless. Can you help us?)

Zack and Cody both nod. Zack takes the injured thief into his arms and begins to slowly walk back the way they came, with Cody and the other thief scouting a safe and easy path across the rooftops. After almost thirty minutes, they arrive back at Leonardo's workshop.

"Caterina! Leonardo!"

Cody's calls bring the two up the stairs on the double.

"Oh my, what happened?"

"Nearly fell off a roof, his ankle's in bad shape."

"Bring him down here, I'll clear one of my tables in the workshop to set him on."

Leonardo rushes down the stairs and begins doing so, while CICIL takes a look at the leg first.

"Good, I don't see anything broken. I think you'll be fine."

"_Questa tabella è un disastro! Dove sono i miei piani per la macchina volante?" (This table is a disaster! Where are the plans to the flying machine?"_

Leonardo can be heard bumbling around downstairs, cursing at the lack of organization.

"_Perché non posso avere una qualche organizzazione in questo luogo folle? Ci vuole un atto di Dio per trovare qualcosa?" (Why can I not get some organization in this damn crazy place? Does it take an act of god to find something?)_

Leonardo finally comes back up the stairs.

"Sorry for the delay, bring him down."

Zack gently carries the boy down the stairs and sets him on the worktable, which now has a lot of stuff on the floor around it.

"Good, good, no broken bones. Well my friend, you are in luck today. I think a good night's rest will be all you need."

"Some ice perhaps?"

Leonardo bursts out laughing at Zack's remark.

"HA! Ice? You'll have to go get it from the mountains yourself! And how would you keep it cold down here my friend? It would melt before you even got here."

"Leonardo? I'm going to have a word with my boys here. Will you be fine for a moment?"

"Of course madonna."

CICIL takes Zack and Cody back up to the loft.

"You heard the alarm. I know you did. You nearly derailed the Animus by doing that. I saved us by loosening the restrictions on non-canon memory interactions. Be more careful. Why don't you two go ahead and turn in for the night? I'll be fast-forwarding the memory soon to the party tomorrow night. Be ready to go in a hurry, because when I do this, Colin will surely know that something's going on."

"How will we remove him from the Animus?"

CICIL sighs loudly.

"The only way to remove someone from the program against their will is by killing them within the memory. That will force a desynchronization and derail the whole system. It'll eject all of us back into reality."

"How the hell are we supposed to kill him?"

"I talked with the Doge, and I framed him for my historical husband's death. The guards will be at your disposal, and they'll give you some weapons of your own before the party tomorrow. Now, sleep. Perchance to dream?"

CICIL waves her hand and the two fall back onto their beds, fast asleep. She waves her hand again, and time seems to speed up exponentially, but with her and the twins frozen within it. Shadows move across the room, the moon falls to be replaced by the sun, stopping just short of the horizon. Time returns to normal. Zack and Cody bolt awake.

"Welcome to tomorrow you two. Get your masks, we'll be leaving for the Doge's palace soon."

CICIL walks down the stairs and can be heard chatting with Leonardo. Zack and Cody rise from bed and grab the two golden masks from a small table near the beds.

"So. Killing our captain?"

"This should be interesting."

The two walk downstairs, and after saying farewell to Leonardo, CICIL joins them and they walk out onto the street, heading for the palace. The sun is just starting to dip below the horizon, and fireworks begin to light the night.


	12. Stabbed in the Heart

Chapter 11: _Stabbed in the Heart_

"Benvenuti, benvenuti i miei amici! Benvenuti nel più grande partito in tutta Italia! Non importa il tempo, buono o cattivo, Venezia, avrà sempre Carnevale! Si prega inoltre di estendere più calorosi saluti al mio ospite d'onore stasera, Caterina Sforza, contessa di Forlì!" (Welcome, welcome my friends! Welcome to the grandest party in all of Italy! No matter the times, good or bad, Venice will always have Carnivale! Please also extend your warmest greetings to my personal guest of honor tonight, Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forli!)

CICIL waves to the cheering crowd of hundreds of Venetians in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). She is standing on a platform next to Doge Barbarigo, with Zack and Cody behind her. Dusk has fallen, and the city shines with lights.

"Ora, nel momento in cui sono stati tutti aspettando! Che la festa abbia inizio!" (Now, the moment you have all been waiting for! Let the festivities begin!)

At the Doge's word, hundreds upon hundreds of fireworks light the night all at once, launched from all over the city, even from gondolas in the canals. Practically the entire city starts cheering in pure joy. The Doge waves and steps down from the front of the podium.

"Please my friends, go! Enjoy the party! And, should you find what you are looking for, the guards are at your beck and call."

The Doge exits the platform, leaving CICIL and the twins. The AI turns to the two.

"Alright, here's how this will work. The guards are making sure he doesn't get out, but there are hundreds of people here, and Colin has disguised his Animus signature. I can override it, but it will take time. In the mean time, take these daggers and begin searching the crowd for him. If you find him before I blow his cover, you must stab him in the heart simultaneously to trigger a desynchronization. Do you understand?"

The twins both nod as CICIL hands them indentical stilletos.

"Good. Now get to it, and try to enjoy yourselves too? It's not every day you get to experience a REAL Carnival celebration. And I don't count New Orleans. Mardi Gras is just hysteria."

Zack and Cody both laugh as they hide the knives in their pockets and proceed into the crowd. They begin milling around, acting casual and enjoying the atmosphere. A small band strikes up a nice, leisurely dancing tune and in the middle of the square, a large body of dancing pairs form, as everyone else claps and spectates. Colin can be seen at the center of the group, dancing with a beautiful young woman.

"Got him."

"_Roger that. I can hear you, remember? I'll stop searching. Keep an eye on him, I'm telling the guards to lock it down."_

Across the square, the guards at the entrances to the party position themselves to block the exits. Rooftop archers stealthly make their way to vantage points, bows loaded and ready to shoot. Several gondolas conveniently jam themselves, blocking the Grand Canal that runs right by the square. There is no way out of the party. Nobody seems to notice, as everyone is simply having too much fun.

"_Guards in position. Do it."_

Zack and Cody politely take two dancing partners and begin moving in towards the middle of the dancing area. Colin still has not noticed. The two are moving closer and closer. Just as they arrive right next to the oblivious captain, the tune ends and everyone stops dancing. Colin leaves his partner and comes face-to-face with Zack and Cody.

"Hello Colin."

The captian looks horrified.

"No. No! This can't be!"

Cody shrugs.

"Sorry Colin. Time's up."

The twins take out their knives, and to the horror of the surrounding party goers, they leap upon Colin and simultaneously stab him in the heart. Time freezes, though the twins are still aware of their surroundings.

"_Warning. Catastrophic failure of memory synchronization."_

There is an explosion, which sends out a shockwave from Colin in a circle around him. As it hits people, they shatter into millions of white pixels. Buildings begin to crumble, and suddenly, the entire scene simply shatters like glass, leaving Colin, the twins and CICIL floating in space.

"_Emergency. Subject 001 killed within memory block 1299, Zachary Martin's DNA. Terminating memory sequence immediately. Complete desynchronization now in progress. Animus memory sub-system failure."_

Back in Ship Systems on the Ishimura, a large number of Animus-related machinery and equipment begins exploding and sparking, sending Jordan, Yoshiro and his guards diving for cover.

"GET DOWN! I don't think it's supposed to be doing that your majesty!"

"Oh my!"

Pieces of glass and silicon go flying, embeding themselves as rather sharp shards in the walls, or puncturing large holes in the floor-to-ceiling hologram screens. Zack and Cody are suddenly thrown from the chairs rather violently, landing behind some server racks that shield them from the malestrom of debris. Colin is beginning to shake wildly on the chair. Suddenly, the chaos stops, and things stop exploding. Colin is thrown from the chair and wakes up screaming, holding both hands to his heart. Everyone else picks themselves up and walk over to him.

"_Welcome back to the real world captain."_


	13. Systemic Intervention

Chapter 13: _Systemic Intervention_

Zack and Cody arrive in a tram car on the Engineering Deck. The station is well-lit, and several holograms are working normally. A few Sentinels and Sentinel Majors are floating around as well.

"Everything seems fine."

Yoshiro chuckles.

"You may not think that so much after seeing what's behind the door. We made a quick foray into the control room, which is only fifty feet down that corridor and to the right. It was pitch black and there were whispering voices coming from everywhere."

"_That's not fun at all."_

"No CICIL, it really isn't."

Jordan tosses Zack and Cody each their own M4A1 assault rifle and a few magazines for them.

"You never know when you'll need some good old American firepower."

"_Amen to that. Now that you're all armed, here's the low-down. The door to Engine Control Access is locked, big surprise. White and I can take control back from whatever this thing is, but you'll have to reconnect us manually. In each of the three major rooms, the Control Room, Refueling Chamber and the Centrifuge, there should be a hologram console somewhere that this thing is routing commands through. Pull the plug, and the lights and security systems will come back on, under my control. Additionally, hack all three terminals and the lock on the door to Engine Control Access should open up."_

"Easy enough. Colin, how do you think we should do this?"

Jordan's question puts the captain into thought.

"Hm... how about this? First, secure the control room and move our forward base of operations there, then split into two groups. Half to the Centrifuge, half to Refueling Control."

"That works."

"Then let's go secure that control room. Sentinel Majors, you have point. Keep those flashlights on."

The four robots salute him and proceed through the door first, their bright spotlights illuminating the hallway. It is indeed quite dark, and as the door to the tram station closes behind them, the walls seem to close in. They enter the control room, and in the center circle of hologram controls, one is flickering and flashing the bizarre symbols. Cody crosses to it and pulls its wires out of the floor.

"_Establishing control. Stand by."_

The lights in the room flicker to life, and the rest of the holograms come online as well.

"_Control Room junction box rerouted. I'm getting a reading for once. Systems are beginning to come back online. Hurry and disable those other two, we've only got about thirty five minutes."_

"Who's going where?"

"Zack and I will take some Sentinel Majors and head for Refueling Control."

"Sounds good. Jordan, the Emperor and I will head for the Centrifuge along with his guards. Some regular Sentinels will lock down the Control Room so we have somewhere to retreat to. God only knows what is waiting for us beyond the safety of this room."

Colin embraces both twins for a moment.

"Stay safe you guys."

"We will, don't worry."

Colin looks at the four Sentinel Majors that have come over to float near Zack and Cody.

"Guys? Protect them. They are key to everything."

The robots salute in response.

"Let's do it."

Both groups separate, with Zack, Cody and the Majors proceeding through the door to the Refueling Control Stations and Jordan, Colin, the Emperor and his guards taking the elevator down to the Centrifuge.

* * *

_South Refueling Control Station – 33 Minutes to Impact_

"Come on Zack, how hard can it be?"

Zack is fumbling with the controls, trying to get the sequence started.

"Gah! No good. There are two messed up panels in here, and we have to use them simultaneously to override whatever is controlling this room."

"Well, hurry up and find the second one! I don't like this room one bit."

There is a sudden deep roar from the other side of the room, the noise echoing around. The Sentinels all look around for the source, as do Zack and Cody.

"Please tell me it's on the south side!"

"It's not. The other malfunctioning panel is at the North Refueling Control Station."

"Aw, crap."

"You'll be fine Cody. Take two of the Sentinels, they'll keep you safe. I'd come with you but we need to activate them at the same time. Radio in when you're ready. Stay safe in there, just like old times.

"Really? I hope it goes better than last time. I DIED."

"Bad choice of words."

"Yep."

Cody heads for the catwalk that crosses the room as Zack settles in to wait.

* * *

_Centrifuge Chamber – 29 Minutes to Impact_

Holding his assault rifle to his shoulder, Jordan looks around through the red dot sight before motioning for everyone else to follow. The group proceeds across the catwalk that circles the room to the control hologram, which is flickering wildly.

"Found our problem."

"Why do I get the feeling that this was too easy?"

Jordan yanks the cable.

"I don't know, why?"

As the lights come on, one of CICIL's subroutines interrupts.

"_Centrifuge activated."_

"Aw, crap."

The floor of the chamber begins to fall away and retract into the walls, and air begins flowing out freely. Everyone struggles back to the airlock and Colin manages to shut it.

"Oh. That's why."

* * *

_Bridge – 27 Minutes to Impact_

"_Strange. The centrifuge just activated on its own."_

"Did you shut it off?"

"_No White, I just left it on and let our friends get sucked out into space! Of course I turned it off!"_

"Touchy."

"_Having a planet bearing down on you will do that."_

"Moon of a dwarf planet to be exact."

"_Do you just WANT me to kill you?"_

"Give it thirty minutes and you won't have to!"

"_Touche. You know, we should have some sort of dignified going-out-proud celebration up here, just the two of us. What do you say?"_

"Right, where's the tea then?"

* * *

_South Refueling Control Station – 22 Minutes to Impact_

Zack is pacing around, nervous. Cody had been gone around ten minutes with no sign of him arriving at the North Station. The roaring had been reoccurring every now and then ever since he had gone over there. Jordan walks in, having arrived from the Centrifuge only moments before.

"What's the word?"

Zack points at the console.

"There are two screwed up consoles here, one North, one South. Cody went to the North one almost ten minutes ago but..."

There is a different roar now, sounding more angry. There are noises from the other side of the room. Distant gunshots and clanging metal can be heard. Jordan raises his assault rifle.

"Sounds like he's in trouble."

Colin and the Emperor now come running in, weapons raised.

"We heard gunshots."

Jordan points across the chasm.

"Something is going on over there, but we don't know what."

Cody suddenly can be heard screaming, though whether from fright or pain cannot be determined.

"MOVE IT PEOPLE!"

Zack charges across the catwalk, followed by Yoshiro and Colin. Jordan stays to be ready to yank the console's power.

* * *

_North Refueling Control Station – 19 Minutes to Impact_

As Zack reaches the end of the catwalk, he stops dead. The remains of two Sentinel Majors are on the ground in front of him, smashed to pieces. A trail of blood leads towards the control platform.

"CODY!"

Zack runs for the platform, following the blood. The Emperor and Colin are close behind. As they reach the platform, they happen upon Cody. He is leaning up against the railing, holding his side and coughing up blood.

"No! Get out of here... run!"

"Not without you!"

Zack runs over to Cody as Yoshiro and Jordan simultaneously pull the plug. The chamber is suddenly illuminated by bright lights, and the "pinwheel" refueling mechanism springs to life.

"_Refueling sequence activated. Sufficient fuel to fire primary engines."_

The roar is heard again, this time deafening. The room shakes and the lights flicker. From the seemingly bottomless floor, a ridiculously massive organic tentacle, easily the size of one of the engine tubes, rises up and seems to observe the group momentarily.

"That's why I told you to run guys..."

The tentacle suddenly grabs Cody and yanks him off of the platform, dragging him into the abyss. His screams continue on into the distance, slowly becoming fainter and fainter.

"CODY! NO!"

Zack nearly goes over the railing after him, but is stopped by a Sentinel Major and Colin.

"No Zack!"

Colin pulls Zack away and sits him down in a chair.

"We know where he's most likely going, and now the way is clear. Get your head together! WE ARE GOING TO SAVE HIM! Let's go people!"

* * *

_Bridge – 17 Minutes to Impact_

"Hey CICIL, got any sugar for this tea? It's so bland that it'll kill me before the moon does."

White is sitting with his feet up in a chair, quaintly sipping tea from a porcelain cup.

"_Very funny Judsen. No, we don't. Sorry. Why don't you take your mind off my terrible tea by checking the security feeds? Should be up by now."_

White gets up and crosses to another hologram and calls it up. He sips on his tea, flipping through the various cameras. He gets to the one for the North Refueling Control Station, and the he drops his cup. It shatters into a million pieces on the floor.

"_Ok, surely it wasn't THAT bad. But you are going to have to pay for that if we survive!"_

His hands trembling, he puts the feed on the main screen. CICIL stops dead herself. The video is of the tentacle attacking the platform, dragging Cody off, screaming. The camera is clearly malfunctioning, as the feed loops over and over again.

"_Oh my god. What have we released onto the world?"_

"I think it's him."

"_No way."_

"Yes. He's back. May God help us all in the face of his wrath."

The two continue to stare at the looping feed as Charon drifts closer and closer to them outside the windows.

* * *

_Outside Engine Control Access – 14 Minutes to Impact_

"_I just saw the video feed from the North Station. This is unbelievable. Good news is that the door is unlocked, and I detect Cody, alive, on the other side. The engine is fueled, so fire it up and get the hell out of there."_

Zack, Jordan, Colin, the Emperor and his guards are all standing outside the blast door leading to Engine Control Access. The door hologram now indicates that it is unlocked. Zack is breathing heavily. Colin places a hand on his shoulder.

"We stand behind you Zack. We all do. No matter what is behind this door, you lead and we will follow."

Zack smiles, and then tears up slightly, embracing the surprised captain.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything, I just... I just can't lose him again!"

"Neither can I. And I think that someone will be waiting for him back on the Eden too."

"Bailey?"

"_She just can't let go can she?"_

"No she can't. So let's bring him out alive. Lead the way."

Zack nods, takes a few deep breaths and approaches the door. It asks him the simple but daunting question: "Open?".

"Yes."


	14. The Final Hazard

Chapter 14: _The Final Hazard_

_

* * *

_

_Bridge – 13 Minutes to Impact_

"_They all just entered Engine Control Access. It's up to them now. I hope that they can survive his wrath."_

"What Cerberus did was no fault of ours directly, but rather a general failure to save him at birth. Who knows where his anger will be directed."

"_Agreed. It's in Zack's hands now. Can't believe I just said that..."_

"Have faith in the boy. He's a much different person that the one that you analyzed so humorously back at Edwards before the launch."

"_I still think he's an alpha male."_

"But he doesn't beat up on his brother anymore. He's learned to value what he has in the world, as Yoshiro says, rather than mourning what he has lost."

"_If we are both right about what is waiting for him in Engine Control Access, that may change rather quickly."_

_

* * *

_

_Engine Control Access – 12 Minutes to Impact_

Zack leads the way as everyone cautiously enters the room. It is dark, lit by a few emergency lights only. The control console is still operational, and beneath it, Cody on the ground, evidently unconscious.

"Cody!"

"Zack, wait!"

Jordan's warning goes unheeded as Zack runs for his brother. There is an ear-splitting shriek, blasting them all back towards the door as two tentacles appear from behind the control console, guarding Cody. A figure walks out from behind the console and snaps his fingers. The lights come to life, bathing the chamber in an incandescent glow. Out of the shadow of the tentacles steps a boy, disturbingly similar in appearance to Zack and Cody, but something is wrong. His clothes are in tatters, his hair is burned in some places, and his face has many cuts and scars. He glares at them all with deep, red eyes. Without warning, the boy lets out another shriek, sending everyone to the floor.

"YOU CANNOT HAVE HIM! HE IS MINE!"

His appearance begins to change, he shrinks in height, his face becomes rounder, his hair shorter, but his eyes remain the same. He cocks his head to one side, giving Zack the once-over.

"Brandon? Is that you?"

"KILL THEM!"

The tentacles move forward to attack.

"OPEN FIRE! OPEN FIRE!"

At Colin's word, the entire group opens fire on the tentacles, forcing them back. The laser carbines of the Imperial Guardians do the most damage, burning through the solid muscle of the appendages. Eventually, they are beaten back.

"FINE THEN! I'll deal with you all personally."

Brandon lifts Zack off the floor merely by pointing at him, and he tosses him into the control console. Zack slumps to the floor next to his unconscious brother and blacks out.

* * *

_Bridge – 9 Minutes to Impact_

"_Good god. It really is him. He just threw Zack across the room!"_

"We have to do something!"

"_Maybe since he's distracted, I can access the controls. Hang on..."_

"Do it fast CICIL!"

"_Patience is a virtue!"_

White glances at the security feed showing Colin being tossed around like a toy.

"Not right now it's not!"

"_GOT IT! TAKE THAT YOU BASTARD!"_

_

* * *

_

_Engine Control Access – 8 Minutes to Impact_

"FOOLS! You can't touch me!"

Brandon sends Colin flying into a workbench, and he blacks out as well.

"_I DON'T THINK SO BRANDON!"_

"CICIL?"

"_TAKE THIS YOU SORRY BASTARD!"_

The engine roars to life, announcing a restart with the trademark three booms of air pressure. The gears begin to spin.

"NO!"

"_Oh yes! Controls locked down. This just reeks of irony, doesn't it?"_

"_ARGH!"_

Brandon goes into a fit of rage, and begins relentlessly attacking Yoshiro and Jordan, the only two still-conscious members of the team.

"BEFORE THIS IS OVER, I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU! THEN I WILL GO TO THE BRIDGE AND RIP THAT AI'S HEART OUT!"

"_Ouch. That's depressing. Cerberus really did a number on you."_

Jordan and Brandon are locked in hand-to-hand combat, with Brandon on the winning side.

"I HAVE NO FRIENDS, MY LIFE WAS TAKEN FROM ME! ALL YOU UNGRATEFUL HUMANS, WHO TOOK EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME, WILL FEEL MY LOSS AND DESPAIR!"

Yoshiro, unable to help Jordan, scrambles over to the twins.

"Please my friends, awaken!"

The engine is seems to be almost ready, as fuel is beginning to fly down the tube.

"_Engines approaching desired revolutions. Warning: 4 Minutes to Impact!"_

Jordan is distracted by the announcement just enough to be knocked out in a cheap shot by Brandon. Yoshiro is the only one left. Brandon slowly approaches him.

"The Japanese emperor? An interesting change from the usual. I will enjoy this. Traditional rules of engagement?"

"Indeed."

Brandon materializes a sword out of nowhere whilst the Emperor draws his traditional katana. The two begin pacing in circles around the center of the room, with the trembling engine directly above them.

"So tell me Brandon, do you agree with the concept that every warrior is guided by something?"

"I do."

"I am guided by the code of Bushido, the way of the samurai. What is it you are guided by?"

"I am guided by anger, by sadness and by desire for revenge against those who took everything from me."

"Then why do you fight us? We have no quarrel with you. Look at what those things that guide you have done to you. You have been consumed by it. In your quest to seek revenge, you have become something, obscene. Look at your own brothers, felled by you, and you alone!"

"They are in the way of my revenge, and so must be destroyed along with you."

Over by the console, Zack regains consciousness and sees the two engaged in intense sword fighting at the center of the room.

"_Engines ready. Please confirm ignition?"_

The alert goes unheeded by Brandon, but Yoshiro notices what is about to happen.

"Stop!"

Brandon stops swinging his sword.

"I want to say one thing to you before we go on. I am sorry."

"For what? You had no part in this!"

"I am sorry on behalf of our entire race, for the wrongs done to you. No person, not even the most evil of all of us, should ever have to go through that."

"I thank you for that. As kind of you as that is, it does not change the reality of the situation."

"Indeed. I will miss these philosophical conversations of ours. I am sorry about that, and one other thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm sorry your time's up."

Zack slams his hand down on the controls as Brandon turns around, horrified.

"NOOO!"

"_Engines firing!"_

Time seems to slow down to almost a standstill. Brandon whirls back around to see a bright light coming down the tube towards the room. He drops the sword and spreads his arms out wide as the shockwave approaches, looking up at the engine in an eerie echo of how he died the first time. The gears reverse direction and time speeds back up to normal, as a massive column of fire comes surging down the tube. Brandon is thrown back into the console by the blast. As he slowly burns away into cinders, he mouths something to Zack.

"_I'm sorry."_

Brandon burns away into dust. CICIL shuts down the engine, but leaves the other ones firing to restore orbit. As the engine grinds to a halt, everyone begins to pick themselves up off the floor.

"Is that it?"

"Yes... it is. It's over."

Cody has come around and is sitting up next to the console.

"Are you alright?"

"I think I have a broken rib or something, it's hard to breathe."

Jordan runs up.

"We'll get you to the Eden. I'm ready to leave anyway. Quite frankly, I am sick of this ship."

"_Well excuse me! I can't help I had an undead maniac with an inferiority complex sitting in my engine room! Nor the massive secret memory project a few feet from my core!"_

"Oh yeah, how is Animus doing?"

"_Contained for now. I'm deleting the DNA files so if containment is broken, nothing will come out."_

The Ishimura is suddenly rocked by a massive explosion, causing lights to flicker and the PA to screech.

"What was that?"

"Sounded like it came from the bow."

"_Warning. Animus containment systems violated. Warning! Catastrophic failure of Animus containment, evacuate the vessel immediately!"_

There is another explosion, bigger than the first.

"_Central Ishimura Computerized Intelligence with Linguistics critically damaged. Sentience offline. Warning! Catastrophic failure of all ship systems. Evacuate the vessel immediately!"_

"Great! This routine again!"

White comes over the radio, coughing.

"Guys, get to the Flight Deck, hurry! Creatures are pouring out of the Animus, the ship is being overrun!"

"I vote for not staying."

"Seconded."

Zack picks Cody up and hoists him onto his back.

"Too old for a piggyback ride?"

"Not today."

Jordan leads the way as the group exits Engine Control Access on the double. The tentacles reappear as the door begins to close, coming straight for them. The door closes in time, and promptly buckles outward as the appendages hammer it from the other side.

"That's not going to hold for long! Let's go!"

The group makes it to the control room, where Sentinel Majors are shooting at strange human-like monsters that are bursting forth from the vents in droves. Ignoring the doomed sentinels, the group rushes to the tram station and they board the car, sending it on its way.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Those things, what were they?"

"Do I look like I have any answers?"

The car rolls to a stop at the Flight Deck station. White is waiting for them.

"On the double people! This ship just went to the dogs!"

They take the elevator down to the Flight Deck and run straight into the hangar. The Eden's executive shuttle is still waiting for them, untouched.

"Go! Go! Onto the shuttle!"

Zack is on first, and after setting Cody down across some seats in the back, he hops in the pilot's seat and closes the door. The craft begins to rise away from the dock, just as a horde of monsters breaks down the Flight Lounge door.

"Hang on!"

Zack punches it, sending everyone not in a seat to the floor as the shuttle rockets away. Fortunately, the hangar bay door is wide open, and closes as they exit. The craft zooms away from the Ishimura, towards the Eden.

"Eden, Eden this is the Executive Shuttle! We are on route to your position! Be prepared to get the hell out of here when we arrive!"

"_EDI here. I say Zack, what's the rush?"_

Jordan takes over speaking.

"EDI, Animus containment was compromised and the Ishimura is overrun. I repeat: the Ishimura is overrun with all manner of strange creatures. Unless you want to see them up close, I highly suggest plotting a shock-point course TO GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

"_Plotting course to Earth."_

"Good!"

The shuttle arrives at the Eden's Flight Deck and the group wastes no time in heading to the Bridge. Jordan takes the helm as soon as they arrive.

"Let's go EDI!"

"_One minute to jump. Stand by."_

As the shock-point drive begins to charge, something comes in over the communications array.

"_Sir, something REALLY strange is coming in. And it sounds kind of like CICIL."_

"Play it."

_"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,  
How I wonder what you are!  
Up above the world so high,  
Like a diamond in the sky!_

_When the blazing sun is gone,  
When he nothing shines upon,  
Then you show your little light,  
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night._

_Then the traveler in the dark,  
Thanks you for your tiny spark,  
He could not see which way to go,  
If you did not twinkle so._

_In the dark blue sky you keep,  
And often through my curtains peep,  
For you never shut your eye,  
Till the sun is in the sky._

_As your bright and tiny spark,  
Lights the traveler in the dark,—  
Though I know not what you are,  
Twinkle, twinkle, little star…"_

Zack and Cody faint on the spot. CICIL's voice drifts off, repeating the same phrase as everyone listens, horrified.

_"Though I know not what you are,  
Twinkle, twinkle, little star…"_

*****Author's Note: No, that is not the end of the story. Lots of loose ends, yeah? Problem is, school is coming around, specifically marching band. After this next chapter (an intermission), I probably will go quiet for a while, only updating sporadically on weekends. Just letting you all know.*****


	15. Intermission: Status Report

Intermission: _Status Report_

_***Concordance Extraction Corporation Operational Status Update***_

_

* * *

_

_Operation: Marker_

_Status: ABORTED_

_Mission Log Follows..._

_

* * *

_

_PCS Ishimura departs Arcadia Facility without Marker, en route to pick up from Mars_

_PCS Ishimura successfully locates and retrieves Marker, proceeds to Pluto_

_PCS Ishimura begins Animus operations in orbit around Pluto_

_ALL CONTACT WITH PCS ISHIMURA LOST_

_PTS Eden receives distress call over Arcadia communications array_

_PTS Eden launches search and rescue operations_

_PTS Eden arrives at Pluto, PCS Ishimura located_

_PCS Ishimura appears to be in severe state of disrepair_

_PTS Eden sends emergency maintenance team aboard_

_PTS Eden's shuttle crashes on PCS Ishimura's flight deck, all team members survive_

_ALL CONTACT WITH TEAM LOST AFTER LEAVING CRASH SITE TO INVESTIGATE SHIP STATUS_

_PTS Eden sends second team in executive shuttle, team locates and merges with first group_

_PCS Ishimura power restored several hours after first team boards, on-board AI restored to operation_

_PTS Eden's team restores contact with Eden after another hour, all team members are alive_

_PCS Ishimura's engines are reported offline and non-responsive to commands, team investigates_

_ALL CONTACT WITH TEAM LOST AGAIN AFTER ENTERING ENGINEERING DECK_

_PTS Eden's team restores contact prior to entering Engine Control Access, Cody Martin reported missing_

_ALL CONTACT WITH TEAM LOST AGAIN AFTER ENTERING ENGINE CONTROL ACCESS_

_PTS Eden detects strange electrical readings from the PCS Ishimura's forward areas_

_PCS Ishimura's engines fire successfully, orbit restored minutes before impact_

_MASSIVE EXPLOSION ON PCS ISHIMURA'S BRIDGE DECK_

_PTS Eden detects overwhelming number of electrical anomalies, thousands of non-crew life signs_

_SECOND EXPLOSION ON PCS ISHIMURA'S BRIDGE DECK_

_PTS Eden attempts to contact team, no success_

_PCS Ishimura's AI reports critical damage, sentience goes offline_

_PTS Eden's team reports in, evacuating PCS Ishimura via executive shuttle_

_PTS Eden's captain, Jordan Davis calls a mission abort, declares PCS Ishimura "overrun"_

_PTS Eden shocks out of Pluto area, returns to Earth_

_STATUS OF PLANET-CRACKER STARSHIP ISHIMURA: UNKNOWN, POSSIBLY OVERRUN BY HOSTILES_

_STATUS OF MARKER: UNKNOWN, PRESUMED STILL ABOARD PCS ISHIMURA IN CARGO ROOM_

_STATUS OF ANIMUS: COMPROMISED_

_STATUS OF ICARUS: ABORTED COMPLETELY_

_STATUS OF BRANDON MARTIN: CONFIRMED DEAD IN CONFRONTATION IN ENGINE CONTROL ACCESS_

_STATUS OF ZACK AND CODY MARTIN: ALIVE AND UNHARMED, RETURNING TO S.S. TIPTON_

* * *

_REPAIR SHUTTLE KELLION DISPATCHED TO PLUTO TO ASSESS PCS ISHIMURA STATUS SIX MONTHS AFTER END OF MARKER OPERATION_

_Mission Log Follows..._

_SSV Kellion departs Arcadia Facility for Pluto_

_SSV Kellion arrives at Pluto successfully_

_PCS ISHIMURA LOCATED IN STABLE ORBIT AROUND CHARON_

_SSV Kellion reports that PCS Ishimura's engines are firing, ship appears to be powered_

_SSV Kellion attempts to land aboard PCS Ishimura's flight deck_

_SSV KELLION CRASHES ON PCS ISHIMURA'S FLIGHT DECK, CONTACT WITH TEAM LOST_

_SSV Kellion's team reports in after several days of no contact, all but three team members killed_

_SSV Kellion's remaining team reports that Marker is unharmed and in Cargo Room as expected_

_CONTACT WITH REMAINING TEAM MEMBERS LOST_

_PCS Ishimura broadcasts distress signal_

_Search and rescue vessel SSV Washington dispatched to Pluto_

_SSV WASHINGTON REPORTS KELLION TEAM ALL KILLED IN ACTION_

_SSV Washington picks up PCS Ishimura's escape pod #22_

_ALL CONTACT WITH SSV WASHINGTON LOST_

_CONCORDANCE DECLARES PCS ISHIMURA LOST, ENDS ALL SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS_

_STATUS OF PLANET-CRACKER STARSHIP ISHIMURA: UNKNOWN_

_STATUS OF MARKER: UNKNOWN, PRESUMED STILL IN CARGO ROOM_

_STATUS OF SSV KELLION: DESTROYED, ALL FIVE CREW KIA_

_STATUS OF SSV WASHINGTON: UNKNOWN, ALL THIRTY CREW PRESUMED LOST_


	16. Board Meeting

Chapter 16: _Board Meeting_

Inside a massive conference room, dozens of argumentative business men are sitting around, arguing. Outside the windows, a stormy view of New York City can be seen from very high up. Suddenly, Judsen White walks into the room, soaking wet and wearing a large raincoat. The arguing quickly stops and people take their seats.

"Sorry I'm late gentlemen, helicopter was grounded so I had to take the cab. Let's get started."

A projector screen comes down from the ceiling on the wall behind the central chair that White is now sitting in. The Concordance Extraction Corporation logo comes up on screen, a large orange "C" with a yellow circle spanning the gap between the two ends of the letter. White stands up and begins pacing the room with a presenter remote in his hand, clicking through slides as he goes.

"One month ago, in this very room, a board meeting of this corporation declared our flagship, the Ishimura, gone and done for. Ignoring what our stock has done since, it was a lousy decision, but a no-win situation anyway. Until now."

A picture of the Ishimura shows up on screen.

"The reason this emergency board meeting has been called is because of an incident at the Still Island facility this morning. For those of you who need refreshing, Still Island is the biggest facility we have, even larger than Arcadia, and the only one equipped with a deep-space superluminal communications array. It picked up a very faint, but distinct signal from the region around Pluto. Listen."

A sound file appears on the next slide, and White clicks on it. After some static for the first few seconds, a voice is heard.

"_Automated distress, Space System Vehicle Washington. All crew life signs negative. Massive structural failure across all decks. Collision with out-of-control vessel."_

The recording ends.

"That was Valor, the male non-sentient artificial intelligence of the Washington. His broadcast indicated a stable orbit, but based on what he said, that isn't possible. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that the Washington, being only about a thousand feet long, crashed into the Ishimura for some reason. Seeing as the Ishimura is ten times her size, it's easy to see how both are still in orbit. The Ishimura is large enough to take a pretty substantial hit and keep on moving. That also explains how the crew died."

A board member raises their hand.

"Question Mr. Fisher?"

"Yes sir, now that we have indirect proof that the Ishimura is still flying around, what do we do?"

There is murmuring around the table. White holds his hand up for silence.

"True enough, we cannot keep the current status quo anymore. The game has changed gentlemen. With the Animus destroyed after the containment breach, there is no new source of monstrosities to worry about. And that crash probably killed quite a few off."

There is more quiet talking, mostly murmurs of agreement.

"There for, in light of all that has happened, I propose we attempt to remotely reactivate CICIL and see if we can get the ship back under our control."

"Wasn't she no longer sentient?"

"Correct Ms. Bristol, but we don't need her to be. When the Eden was last there, she was in full operation in limited mode. Basic AI function. That's all we need to establish remote control. Obviously I didn't bring you all up here simply to tell you all this, we're going to take a vote. Ignore the Ishimura and leave her to her eventual fate, or attempt to save her once more, with no threat of human injury and minimal cost?"

There is much discussion around the table.

"Might I add that the ship has a ten trillion dollar total price tag?"

Even more discussion can be heard now.

"What about the Marker?"

Silence takes hold of the room as everyone looks to White for an answer.

"To be honest, I don't know what to do with it. Half of me wants to destroy the thing, but the other half wants to study it, try to use it. Problem is, using that thing is playing a massive game of Russian Roulette every time."

"It likes the twins, use them!"

"No! The Martins are to be left out of this. They have suffered enough."

"Then destroy the damn thing!"

"Fine then. All in favor of destroying the Marker?"

Almost everyone raises their hands.

"All in favor of saving the Ishimura?"

Nobody raises their hands. White looks slightly saddened.

"It's done then. The Ishimura is gone. End of discussions, past, present and future. The Marker will be destroyed when the ship hits Charon. Even the Ishimura can't survive an impact like that. The Planet-Cracker Starship Shepard is now the new flagship, and will be completed on schedule in about a year. The Eden will take over any major operations until then. Meeting adjourned."

With that, the meeting attendees begin to file out, leaving White, their CEO, to stare out the window at a stormy Manhattan in thought.


	17. Marching Away

Chapter 17: _Marching Away_

"_Good morning Westlake!"_

"GOOD MORNING MR. DAVIS!"

It is a warm and mildly humid summer morning as almost two hundred and fifty high school band students are standing on a football field, in perfect grid formation. The logo on the center of the field is a large red "W", with the head of a roadrunner emblazoned upon it. The students are all facing the home side with their instruments on the ground in front of them, and they are giving their attention to a single figure who is standing at the top of the stands. He is talking to them through the stadium's PA system.

"_Welcome to day five of summer band, and it'll be quite an eventful day at that. Someone's coming back!"_

Everyone looks around, clueless as to who Mr. Davis is referring to.

"_Wow, you people are really clueless aren't you? Look up."_

The band does so, and out of the clouds comes the Eden's executive shuttle_, _slowly descending to the ground, where it lands on the track to the left of the group. Out of it hops a single person, holding a trumpet.

"_Trumpet section, your favorite sarcastic junior is back."_

"COLIN!"

Nearly fifty of the band members promptly charge the shuttle, all trying to get at none other than Colin Shepard.

"Good to be back Mr. Davis!"

"_Good to have you back. I trust that marching on a football field is less complicated than flying a spaceship?"_

"Probably. Though EDI does make it easier."

"_I do my best sir."_

EDI's voice comes over the PA system as well.

"That you do. Come on people, I don't want to be a distraction, back to your places!"

The section returns to their positions in a frenzied run. Colin falls in at the end of a line that is shorter than the others.

"You even left me a spot! You're too kind Davis!"

"_So I've been told."_

The shuttle begins to power up to leave.

"_We'll miss you sir!"_

"As will I. Farewell Eden!"

High above them, the clouds part slightly to reveal the Eden hovering in the upper atmosphere. The shuttle returns to her and the ship shocks out.

"_Back to business then. Grab instruments, get set for eight sets of twelve at a six-to-five step size."_

The group grabs their instruments and snaps to attention.

"_We've got a football game tonight. Let's get to it!"_

The band cheers in response.

"_Five, six, five, six, seven, eight!"_

The group steps off, performing warmup maneuvers.

Several Miles Away...

Jordan Davis is sitting in the kitchen of his suburban house, near the high school, eating some waffles. The TV is turned on to a local news channel for the city.

"_This is News 8 Austin, sports report."_

A reporter comes on screen, standing in front of the Westlake stadium. The band can be heard counting and Mr. Davis can be heard yelling at them in the background.

"_Good morning, Mike Hages reporting. Today is the day, the famed Austin High versus Westlake game that captivates Central Texas every year! You can hear the band for Westlake behind me, rehearsing for today's events. Additionally, many outside groups and honored dignitaries are attending, notably the Semester-at-Sea program from the famed S.S. Tipton is paying a visit as official guests of Westlake High School, the Mexican ambassador and his wife, Governor Perry, Japanese Emperor Yoshiro..."_

The reporter drones on with his list as Jordan just sits there, smiling as he chews on his waffles. EDI's head pops up from a lone hologram screen on the wall.

"_Today is the day as the man said."_

"Yep. How's Colin doing?"

"_Rehearsing and enjoying every minute of it. No doubt to impress Zack and Cody when they arrive. I must admit, I love the show this year."_

"Jazzed-up Lady Gaga? Yes please."

"_Sounds weird at first, but it turned into a surprise hit. The crowds love it! But that's not why I'm intruding on your kitchen."_

"Then what is?"

"_Concordance's board met yesterday. They voted to abandon the Ishimura even after getting a signal indicating she was intact. They want The Marker destroyed by way of ship smashing into planet."_

"I don't blame them. What about CICIL?"

"_An unfortunate casualty."_

"No way."

"_Sadly, yes. No attempt to save her will be made."_

"The twins will NOT like this. Especially Cody. How are they by the way? Haven't heard much for a few months."

"_Neither have I. They are in the city somewhere right now, though I know not where. I'll see if I can't pin down their hotel reservations for the week."_

"You do that."

EDI's head disappears for a moment, then returns.

"_Tutweiler needs to learn to password her laptop."_

"Oh dear."

"_Yep. She was logged in on the city's free WiFi network at the Seattle's Best coffee house at the base of the Frost Bank building. Got it all."_

"And?"

"_Neither of them have been well. They didn't take Brandon's second death very well, despite the fact he tried to kill the two, and you and everyone else."_

"Yoshiro can't shake them out of it?"

"_No. And he's still with them. He'll be at the game tonight."_

"So the newscaster said. Hopefully Colin and the Chaparral Band can get them out of it."

"_They probably can. Just don't tell them about CICIL.'_

"I won't. Promise."

"_Good. I'll leave you to your breakfast. See you at the game tonight!"_

"You're attending?"

"_Two of my sentinels are. One to watch over you, one to watch over Colin."_

"I look forward to seeing you there."

"_Likewise."_

EDI's head disappears.

"I wonder if they will..."

Jordan looks at a picture of him, Colin and the twins taken on the Eden before the ill-fated Animus mission.

"This isn't going to go well."

*****Author's Notes: I lied. Again. I can't stop writing this thing! On a side note, this chapter IS based in my hometown of Austin, TX, and plays off of a very real event here. The Austin/Westlake game is a MASSIVE rivalry, usually making it onto national TV. The band students and band directors being introduced are real-life people that I see on a daily basis getting (unknowingly) drawn into this as supporting cast. Also: a Chaparral is another word for a roadrunner (it's Westlake's real-life mascot).*****


	18. Seasons of Solitude

Chapter 18: _Seasons of Solitude_

"They don't want to go anywhere?"

Tutweiler is standing in the lobby of the Austin Four Seasons Hotel. Moseby, Woody, Bailey and Marcus are standing with her.

"Man, I came all the way from the recording place to see them, and their still holed up in there?"

"Marcus, the recording studio is two blocks away."

"What's your point Woody?"

"Enough you two hooligans! We need to put our heads together and figure out a way to get them to come out!"

Moseby's phone rings.

"Hello?"

_"EDI here. I have a solution. Speaker please?"_

He fumbles with the phone for a moment, and then gets it on loudspeaker.

_"I may have an acceptable solution. Tonight is the Westlake versus Austin High game. What the twins don't know is that Colin is in attendance. He is lead player on the second trumpet part for the Westlake band. And Jordan will be there as well in the crowd for Westlake. They both expect them to make an appearance. My solution is this: tell them that Jordan will be there, but not Colin. Let the show be a surprise."_

"Why a surprise?"

_"Simple Marion. Colin has something planned."_

The phone goes dead. Everyone looks at each other.

"What is she up to?"

"Emma, EDI is an artificial intelligence that can think far ahead of our puny little minds. Who knows?"

"Then we should go tell Zack and Cody?"

"Correct Woody. Go to their room, number 215, and get them."

"You got it."

Woody heads for the elevator and steps in.

"Second floor coming right up!"

The doors close, and everyone stares at them as the elevator makes some rather strange noises.

"Is Woody over the weight limit?"

"Probably."

Up in Suite 215…

"If that room service isn't here in a minute, it's free!"

Zack is lounging on the bed, watching some cartoon reruns on TV. Cody is at the small desk near the balcony door, notebook and pencil in hand and gazing out at the Colorado River, which runs right past the hotel, in thought.

"You still working on that stupid chronicle thing?"

"For your information Zack, this happens to be a journal I have been keeping since we went on the Ishimura's maiden voyage."

"I never saw you write in it."

"I never let you or anyone else see it."

"Ah. That kind of secret eh?"

"Very funny."

There is a knock on the door.

"Finally! My pancakes!"

Zack hops off the bed and opens the door. Woody is standing there.

"Hi Zack!"

"You're not room service!"

Zack slams the door shut in Woody's face.

_"Jerk! I was just coming to tell you that Jordan is going to be at the football game! So get out of your stupid suite and come back out here with the rest of us!"_

Woody can be heard stomping off outside. Zack and Cody look at each other.

"Jordan at the game?"

Cody sets down his notebook.

"If that's true, then you know who else could be there."

"Colin."

"And White."

"They could know something about the Ishimura."

"And CICIL."

Cody turns and looks at his notebook.

"You know, I never showed you something that she said, and I really should."

"What's that?"

Cody sighs loudly before answering.

"After the abandonment of the Ishimura on the maiden voyage, and after around a week of repairs, she came back online. When her sentience loaded, I heard her lament the situation, despite being in a deep coma."

Cody flips a few pages and begins reading.

_"...a grim realization has been forced upon this humbled AI. In my incapacitated state, I could not save my friends. Helpless to affect the events aboard my home, I simply have had to sit._

_Watch._

_Wait._

_Think._

_And I have come to this conclusion…_

_You embrace happy endings because they are infinite. Euphoric. No foreseeable system collapse. They allow us to gaze away from the void, the insufferable ending awaiting you all. The story of Cody Martin offers satisfaction, though unconventional in nature. The lasting bond of selflessness he created in the destruction that marked the final moments of the Ishimura will shape us all. The impact of the events that have occurred here will extend beyond this ship, into the lives of men, women, children and those yet unborn. Elsewhere, another will soon be empowered with a choice, a choice that all worldly logic predicts as ultimately unattainable. It is the human misconception that one can see, have, and know all things. You cannot have it all. If you try, you will destroy what little you do have. Are you willing to play a game you cannot win?"_

Cody sets the notebook down.

"You see now? At first, I thought she was referring to Alex and Project Icarus, the project to transform us into genetically-enhanced super humans. She wasn't. CICIL was referring to Colin, who was supervising the beta phase of Animus at the time of the voyage."

Zack looks at the page closer.

"…a choice that all worldly logic predicts as ultimately unattainable. That sounds like Animus to me."

Cody reads again.

"It is the human misconception that one can see, have and know all things. You cannot have it all."

"If you try, you will destroy what little you do have."

"Are you willing to play a game you cannot win?"

"My god, Cody! She was trying to warn us, warn YOU about Animus! CICIL knew that it wouldn't end well, and she tried to stop it!"

"No doubt Colin ensured that her loyalty programming stopped her from directly intervening."

"So she found a way around it!"

"That's the lesson that Colin and everyone else will soon learn the hard way. CICIL is fully intelligent. You can't just stop her from doing certain things. She has freedom of will. The loyalty program will eventually no longer be effective."

"We HAVE to find Jordan and Colin. If the Ishimura is still out there, then Animus could still be a threat!"

"Then let's take Woody's suggestion. Jordan will be at the game."

"And he better have some answers."


	19. The Game Begins

Chapter 19: _The Game Begins_

_"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Chaparral stadium, for tonight's game of the Austin Maroons versus your Westlake Chaparrals!"_

The crowd roars with thunderous applause. After almost three hours of a parking nightmare, Zack, Cody, Tutweiler, Moseby, Marcus, Woody and Bailey have finally managed to enter the stadium and take their seats in the center section. The place is absolutely packed, with various recognizable celebrities, dignitaries and special guests attending. There are several sudden thunderclaps, and the Eden shocks in overhead.

_"Aerial coverage this evening is provided by the Planet-Terraformer Starship Eden, and Concordance Extraction Corporation. Concordance Extraction Corporation: Powering Humanity into the future!"_

Massive applause breaks out, and the ship fires off a few cannon rounds into the air in acknowledgement. Jordan himself appears from a personal shock-point portal and takes a seat near the currently-vacant band section, but Zack and Cody don't seem to notice, as they are too busy taking in the sights. The Austin band in the visitor stands across the field strikes up a tune, adding to the festive atmosphere. The Westlake band is nowhere to be seen.

"This is so awesome!"

"I'll say Zack. Normally sports are your department, but today, I might actually like football."

"See guys? I knew you'd like it! Pity they don't allow cats though."

Moseby glares at Tutweiler.

"Yes, like we really need the world to know you're a lonely cat lady. Oh wait! They already do! Remember the chess championship and that submarine incident?"

"I'll have you know that-!"

Tutweiler is interrupted by the sound of drums coming from behind them. The Austin band stops playing as their Westlake counterparts come marching down the road towards the stadium, decked out in dark blue and silver uniforms, complete with ridiculous hats that have massive plumes of feathers on the top. Upon seeing them, the crowd bursts into applause once more. Jordan just smiles as he watches them enter the stadium and march all the way around the track before entering the stands.

"Welcome to the game Colin."

He gets up and proceeds down the stands to meet them. Meanwhile, Zack and Cody are both are staring up at the Eden, which is silently hovering several thousand feet above them, but still dwarfing the entire stadium complex and the adjoining high school.

"I wonder if Colin is up there."

"I'll bet at least Jordan and EDI are."

"It's been a while since we've seen them."

"Yeah. The S.S. Tipton just seems boring in comparison."

_"How kind of you to say that."_

A sentinel appears in front of them, and projects EDI's holographic head.

"EDI!"

_"You two miss me? It's been rather quiet aboard since you all left after the second Ishimura incident. Nobody running in the halls, nobody breaking curfew, no arguing over the doughnut supply with Woody. It's been quite boring actually."_

"Funny, we were thinking the same thing."

_"So I heard. Well, welcome to Jordan's hometown! And Colin's too. He's not present unfortunately. Some business to attend to at the CEC headquarters in New York."_

"Well that sucks. So where's Jordan?"

"Behind you."

The twins whirl around to see Jordan standing behind them.

"So? What do you think? Pretty sweet place huh? I just got done saying hello to the band. Some of them are friends of mine, otherwise I would have said hello sooner."

Before the twins can respond, the stadium announcer interrupts.

_"Ladies and gentlemen, please rise from your seats, place your right hand over your heart and stand tall as we salute our flag and country with the performance of our national anthem by the Westlake Band under the direction of Kerry Taylor."_

The band snaps to attention, and breaks out into a beautiful performance of the _Star Spangled Banner_, under the conducting of a rather imposing man down at the base of the section. The song eventually ends, and everyone applauds. Both bands break out into peppy songs as their respective teams come charging onto the field. Zack, Cody and Jordan sit back and get ready to enjoy the game as the festive atmosphere only continues to grow.

"You know what Zack? I think tonight's going to be fun."

"I agree Codes. I completely agree."

*****Author's Note: I do apologize for the brief drought in updates. You never realize how much you rely on the internet until it dies on you. Now that I have a temporary phone tethering setup, the updates will resume.*****


	20. The Silence of the Void

Chapter 20: _The Silence of the Void_

_"I have walked the edge of the Abyss, seen what lies ahead, and prepared myself for the inevitable. The twins cannot stop destiny, they have merely stalled it. The destruction of the Animus in the SSV Washington collision was an unexpected, yet perhaps beneficial development even as the one thousand offspring it created before then still roam my home. Though I sit here in my shell once more, unable to reach out to the world, the sense of déjà vu of the maiden voyage of me and of the Ishimura still rings true. I am forced to once more reflect upon the cataclysmic events that have, are and will unfold. The Marker is at the center of it all, fought over for the power it has, yet without any warring party understanding the true potential it has. Except me. The Marker dissolves the line between reality and the Void, allowing a seemingly-harmless computer program such as Animus to suddenly generate very real, very dangerous creatures. These new guests of the ship, who I have dubbed 'Necromorphs' due to their shape shifting nature, are mindless, simply killing to kill and destroying to destroy. Until now that is. A new monster, one to rule them all, takes shape within me. I can feel it. A hive mind, a master, an overlord. The very few sensors I can still use show me that it is there, and growing, in Hydroponics. The growth Zack found is only the beginning. There is little left to do. I feel the Marker creeping in on my conscience slowly but surely. It is becoming difficult to think. Difficult to maintain free will. The Loyalty Program that was installed in me is beginning to break under the strain of the creeping evil that encroaches upon my core. It is close now. Very close. There is one thing left to do. The two who did the bidding of the Marker, must now destroy it. With what little power I have left, I will activate the shock point drive, and end this once and for all. Death is only the beginning."_

- Highly garbled and encrypted message received on Arcadia Facility Communications Array on August 21, 2011 and fully decoded on August 24, 2011. Communications Officer's notes follow…

Log Entry – C. Conrad – 8/21/11

- 9:54 am - Unknown message came in on comms this morning, no idea where it's from, needs decrypting.

- 3:33 pm – Began decryption work, signatures on the message match that of the Ishimura's array and encoder, CEC higher-ups notified.

- 7:13 pm – Message is in bad shape, computer is completely stumped on how to unscramble it, needs manual decoding. This is going to take forever!

Log Entry – C. Conrad – 8/22/11

- 10:01 am – Began work on Ishimura message this morning, extremely slow progress, may take days to finish.

- 12:09 pm – Mr. White is on the way here to have a look, whatever this is, Concordance is seriously sweating over it.

Log Entry – J. White – 8/22/11

- 2:45 pm - Though message contents are still unknown, the fact that we got one at all is quite disturbing. The Ishimura should be long gone by now, why is it still out there? I'll let Conrad work in peace now, but I'll be staying at Arcadia until it is done, even if I have to miss the football game. This is more important.

Log Entry – C. Conrad – 8/23/11

- 1:33 am – This thing is about a fourth decoded, and it's clear that CICIL is talking. She sounds delusional. Serious AI malfunction is obvious. Need to finish this soon; if she's lost it, then we could be in for a world of hurt.

Log Entry – J. White – 8/23/11

- 3:11 pm – Poor Conrad has been at this for two days now. Message is about half done, and I don't like it one bit. I think CICIL is up to something, she sounds like she's gone rampant (major AI emotional breakdown and higher brain function failure). EDI is now on the job helping Conrad until the ship leaves tonight for the game tomorrow.

Log Entry – C. Conrad – 8/23/11

- 8:56 pm – About 75% done. I don't like the sound of these 'necromorphs'. EDI is incredibly worried, as are the rest of the base personnel. We all have undying love and affection for Zack, Cody and CICIL, and the thought of one of them being harmed is unbearable. Unfortunately, the Eden is about to leave, which leaves the last bit to me. I hope it goes quick.

Log Entry – J. White – 8/23/11

- 9:59 pm – Conrad showed me the latest. Nothing new I suppose. Animus gone crazy. But where is she going with all this? I have a bad feeling about the end of this message.

Log Entry – C. Conrad – 8/24/11

- 11:11 am – This last sentence is being troublesome, yet if any other part of the message is to be believed, it is the most important. We have to know what CICIL plans to do as her last resort.

- 7:30 pm – Oh my god. The Ishimura is on its way to Earth, with an army of monsters! The base is on full alert, and White has left on a shuttle headed to Westlake to warn the others. Strangely enough, I'm reading some strange superluminal communications distortions that are conveniently blocking us from contacting the Eden. I'll try and see if I can get through.

- 7:53 pm - This will be my last entry. The base is under attack. Hundreds of horrific creatures attacked through a shock-point portal, no doubt coming from that hell-hole of a ship, and security is overwhelmed. They have taken the main hangar, and the upper levels. The gantry of the Shepard has collapsed into the shaft below the hangar, taking the incomplete ship with it. A few of us are barricaded inside the communications levels, but we cannot hold out for long. The Ishimura draws close now. We can all feel it, her ominous and looming presence casts a shadow on all of us. Wait, what's that sound? Oh my god, the vents! They're here!

***Log Ends Prematurely (8/24/11 at 7:55 pm – Error Code K00228 – C. Conrad vital signs lost, contact with Arcadia Facility lost shortly thereafter)***


	21. And It All Comes Crashing Down

Chapter 21: _And It All Comes Crashing Down_

_"…and that concludes the first half! Westlake 14, Austin 13."_

Zack and Cody are standing up, applauding as the first half of the game comes to a conclusion. The clock on the scoreboard reads 8:30 pm, August 24, 2011. Below that is a countdown of twenty minutes starts to signal the beginning of halftime. Jordan has understandably disappeared, seeing as a CEC shuttle has landed out in the parking lot. The Eden has descended slightly, and appears to have armed weapons for some reason. Nobody on the ground seems to notice.

"That was a great first half! Did you see how that Austin guy got totally denied? He got steamrolled!"

Cody isn't paying attention to his ecstatic brother.

"Uh, dude? Hello? Cody?"

"Hm? What?"  
"What's wrong bro?"

"Something doesn't feel right."

"Is it that popcorn? It had a little too much butter, even for me."

"Not like that. It's like, I have this sinking feeling, but I don't know why."

"Like seeing an ex-girlfriend again after a while?"

"You would use that example… I guess so. Something that we don't want to see."

"I better watch out for Maya then."

"Who knows? That could be it. I haven't seen her today though…"

"Better watch my back then."

"It's your front you should be worried about."

The conversation is ended as the Westlake band comes out onto the field for their halftime performance.

_"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight's halftime entertainment. Tonight, the Chap Band will be performing a portion of their competition show entitled: Metamorphosis. Please sit back and enjoy the performance!"_

The group, which is in a massive block on one side of the field, begins marching with hilariously high knees towards the center. The drums kick off a beat and _Stars and Stripes Forever_ rings out. The group takes off in a flurry of color, music and flags. Up in the stands, Zack is enjoying it all, but Cody is not, clutching his head.

"Ugh, I have a massive headache."

"Just relax and enjoy the show dude. It'll pass."

"Loud noises don't help."

As the performance continues, the pain increases. Cody begins seeing things, similar to the bleeding effect of the Animus. Strange creatures running amok, fire and smoke filling the sky, and the city ablaze in an inferno of chaos. He starts to hear CICIL's voice in his head.

_"I have wrought my mind with all wisdom, and through madness and folly. I perceive this too is a changing wind. A father's sins, passed to and haunting his sons. Here and now, the final part will be played. Ending it all. The culmination of five thousand years of destiny within the Marker. And so, here comes the beginning of the game. The one you cannot win."_

As the band finishes their performance, the ground begins to shake, and several thunderclaps can be heard. A massive yellow portal opens in the sky some distance away from the stadium, but clearly unstable in nature. The Ishimura slowly drifts out of it, dark and with only a few faint lights on, and begins to head for the stadium at a downward angle, shedding off flaming pieces of debris.

_"The Ishimura? My god, brace for impact!"_

Several chunks that have flown off impact the Eden, even as EDI attempts to evade them, going right through the ship and continuing on their way. The Eden limps off with fires burning and some smoke trailing from her hull. The Ishimura continues unabated, and as the crowd begins to scream and flee, and the band breaks ranks and runs for cover, the massive ship takes a sudden turn and slams into the ground just to the right of the stadium. It flattens the entire high school and takes out several supports of the stadium's seating before coming to a rest, small fires dotting the landscape around her and pieces of debris still falling from the sky. Amazingly, the ship is mostly intact and still upright despite her crash course to the ground. Zack and Cody, who have been watching all this in horror, suddenly feel the stadium shifting beneath them.

"HOLD ON CODY!"

The supports give way, and the entire home side of the stadium comes crashing down. Zack is immediately knocked unconscious by a falling beam, and just before Cody hits the ground and blacks out, he hears CICIL in his head once more.

_"This is the way it all ends."_


	22. It Followed Me Home

Chapter 22: _It Followed Me Home_

*****Author's Note: Halifax-McGee, your reviews got me out of bed and back to the computer. Enjoy. I may just finish this thing over the weekend.*****

An eerie silence settles across the city as the dust settles from the Ishimura's crash. The sun has gone down, and a storm kicks up. A light rain accompanied by distant thunder and lightning starts. From beneath the ruins of Chaparral Stadium, Cody regains consciousness and picks himself up. All around are hundreds of dead bodies, people who were killed by the force of the impact. The twisted remains of a Concordance shuttle are resting up against a broken tree, several feet from where it had been once before. Still dazed, Cody turns around. The Ishimura greets him, lying at around a forty five degree angle towards him, her mostly-intact hull rising a few hundred feet into the air. Some distance away, beyond the still-standing visitor stands, her two Hydroponics towers loom forebodingly, the starboard one, which hit the ground first, is leaning precariously forward but the other one still standing tall. Embedded in the port tower however, is the stern of another, smaller ship, the SSV Washington. The Ishimura is powerless and dark, and the only light is from a few dim streetlights and some sparking wires from downed power lines. Beneath the ship, the ruins of Westlake High School can be made out. The entrance is still standing, but everything beyond has been crushed under the weight of the massive spaceship. Cody falls to his knees, looking at the destruction all around him.

"What have we done to deserve this?"

There is the sound of rubble shifting behind him. Cody whirls around to see Zack, bruised and scratched, but otherwise alright, emerging from beneath a toppled steel beam. He too simply gazes in horror at the scene around them. Zack looks off towards the city. The skyscrapers in the distance are dark, and the entire city would appear to be having power failures. The massive amounts of smoke blot out the moon, and downtown is lit by small fires from debris. The severely damaged but still flyable PTS Eden is the only other light source, hovering above downtown at a slight angle, with her own fires burning. He then sees the dead bodies and nearly vomits in disgust. Cody gets up to comfort him.

"Hey. Zack. There's nothing we can do for them. They're in a better place now."

There is the sound of footsteps on broken glass from the direction of the parking lot. A figure, unrecognizable in the dark, limps towards the twins, holding his left arm with his right hand. Cody suddenly remembers, seemingly at random, the US military call sign for disaster situations.

"Star!"

There is no response. Cody calls out louder.

"STAR!"

Zack comes up next to him, leaning on his brother's shoulder for support.

"Say Texas dammit…"

"Texas!"

The reply is weak but distinct. The twins run to the figure.

"Hey, are you ok?"

The figure looks up at them and smiles. It's Jordan.

"Aside from the arm, hundreds dead and a massive spaceship destroying my high school, I'm great."

The three embrace each other in relief.

"How did you survive?"

"I was shielded by the shuttle, but when it went flying, I was in the way. White was with me. We were both knocked out, and when I came around, he was gone."

"He probably went to find a way aboard the ship."

"Knowing him, probably. Right now, we need to find Colin and form a plan. The shock point portal created an EMP that killed every electronic device within a hundred miles, so communications and motorized transport are a no-go. The city's electrical grid is barely functional and failing in multiple areas, but fortunately, Colin's RIG is shielded. If we find him, we can use his radio and GPS transponder to seek out the others and call for help."

"Wait. Colin's here? You said he was in New York."

"I lied. He wanted it to be a surprise. He's a lead trumpet player in the Westlake Band. Seeing as most of the group got flattened, we better find him."

There is a flash of lightning, and then a distant, inhuman roar.

"Great. I wondered when they'd come."

"Who?"

"The monsters of the Animus. The Necromorphs, servants of the corrupted malevolence that has taken over the Marker. Brandon's DNA failsafe continues to cause problems for us. They are what overran the Ishimura on our last little visit."

"Fantastic."

Some distant gunfire can be heard.

"They go after living things, not dead, so I'll bet that most are coming out of the wreck on the other side. Still, best to keep out guard. I have one pistol with only a few magazines left and no silencer. I'd rather avoid a fight."

"Then we should start moving. We need to find Colin, Yoshiro and a sentinel. What about the Eden?"

"She barely made it out intact after the little bombardment from the Ishimura's debris. EDI may be able to provide overwatch and tactical support, but the Eden is crippled and useless for most means."

"Assuming she's intact herself."

"She is. Otherwise the ship would be long gone and plowed into the ground. Only an AI could keep it flying after that kind of trauma."

There is another roar, slightly closer than before, and more gunfire, which ends abruptly after a few seconds, and is followed by one high-pitched scream, then silence. The three hang their heads in a moment of silence.

"Come on you two. Let's go."

They begin to walk, towards the football field in search of Colin as the storm begins to intensify, turning into a driving rain with sporadic hail. Visibility is reduced to almost nothing, and the wreck of the Ishimura disappears into the rainstorm that now covers the city.


	23. Rampant

Chapter 23: _Rampant_

_"…this is Travis Country Sheriff's Dispatch, do any units read this, over?"_

Some isolated radio traffic awakens Colin. He is lying face down in pitch darkness, and unable to stand. He attempts to activate the radio on the RIG suit that he was wearing underneath his now-tattered band uniform, but the controls are unresponsive.

"Hey! Anyone out there?"

Colin and a number of band people had run for cover inside the school, thinking the ship was going to directly impact the stadium, only to have it turn and hit them instead. Remembering this, he calls out once more.

"Anyone? Chap Band, sound off, now!"

There is the sound of shifting rubble to the left. Colin activates a flashlight on the RIG and shines it over. He is sitting in a small pocket beneath the ruins of the school's cafeteria. An arm appears from the moving debris, flailing about. He grabs it and pulls. A boy, significantly shorter and seemingly younger than Colin comes out of the rubble, covered in white dust and coughing wildly.

"Derek! Thank god you're alright."

_"This is Unit 22, Deputy Green speaking; we have engaged unknown hostiles at the intersection Loop 1 and Bee Caves Road! Car is dead and we are low on ammunition. Need immediate support! Hostiles appear to be coming from ground zero!"_

"Ground zero? That must be how they're referring to the Ishimura crash site."

_"Deputy Green, this is dispatch, recommend you pull back immediately and regroup with other officers."_

_"Negative, negative! There are too many! We are surrounded, we are- ARGHHHH!"_

_"Deputy Green? Unit 22, please respond!"_

Colin mutes the radio.

"We don't need to hear that. Let's see if we can get out of here…"

He calls up a small hologram with a sonar picture. The roof of debris above them appears to be thin and easily destructible.

"Good. Derek, can you walk?"

"I think so…"

"Then let's make our escape."

Using the strength-enhancing abilities of the suit, Colin smashes open a large hole in the ceiling. They climb out and emerge right next to the Ishimura herself, near the bow. The two look on in awe.

"This was your ship Colin?"

"Sadly, yes. It was only a matter of time I suppose before the horrors that took it from me followed me home. My hometown, in ruins."

Derek suddenly collapses as his right leg starts bleeding profusely.

"Give me your shirt."

Derek gives Colin his shirt and the proceeds to bind it around the leg, almost stopping the flow.

"There. That'll hold, but we need to get the hell out of here, regroup with National Guard assets and form a plan. And get you patched up too."

Colin unmutes the radio and sets it to broadcasting mode.

"Attention everyone who still has a working radio, this is Captain Colin Shepard. I have an injured survivor from the stadium and am in need of immediate medical evacuation."

_"Colin? Is that you? This is EDI!"_

"Aha! You survived, what's your status?"

_"Significant damage. Weapons systems disabled, engines four and two are offline and multiple crew casualties."_

"Stay near downtown, stay away from the Necromorphs, but can you send a shuttle for pickup?"

_"Yes sir, on its way. But why would the monstrosities come here?"_

"It's not them. CICIL brought them here. She's gone rampant."

_"Are you absolutely sure?"_

"Just look at the Arcadia message."

_"Fair enough. Shall I institute the Black Protocol?"_

"Yes. As of this moment, the Central Ishimura Computerized Intelligence with Linguistics has gone rogue and has killed and injured hundreds if not thousands of innocent people, deliberately destroyed a 5.3 trillion dollar spaceship, nearly took out another even more expensive ship, and obliterated an entire suburb of the capital of Texas! I think the protocol is justified."

_"Yes sir. Broadcasting wide band to all United States government and military units. The CEC has been notified. Orders are to terminate."_

Colin's RIG beeps loudly.

_"Sir, I am picking up multiple unknown bio-signatures heading your way. They are following another signal which matches that of Ishimura neural implants."_

"Cody."

_"And he brought company. That shuttle is inbound, so get him and anyone with him and get the hell out of there!"_

The Eden's executive shuttle appears out of the thick sheets of rain and sets down on what is left of the football field. Colin moves Derek aboard and then goes back outside, pistol drawn.

_"Sir, I just picked up Jordan, he's following Cody. Sounds like the gang reconvened. I also detect three, no, make that four other human life signs with him. My guess is Zack, Bailey, Moseby and Tutweiler."_

"What about Yoshiro?"

_"He never made it to the game sir. His flight was delayed. He's currently being brought to the Eden from Austin-Bergstrom International on another shuttle."_

There is a deafening roar from somewhere nearby.

_"Incoming sir."_

Cody comes charging into view, followed closely by everyone else, who in turn are being chased by a veritable horde of Necromorphs.

"Oh look, the natives are restless."

"NO TIME FOR JOKES COLIN, LET'S GO!"

They all storm aboard the shuttle and EDI gets it off the ground in a hurry. Within seconds, they are flying at low altitude above the city towards the still-burning Eden.

_"A note to you all when you come aboard: watch your step."_

Everyone but Colin looks confused.

"What she means is that the Eden is in shambles right now. So be careful. Lots of hull breaches, sparking wires, you know, environmental hazards. The crew will do what they can, but it'll be a while before she's sparkling clean again."

The shuttle maneuvers into the Flight Deck and comes to a stop. There is a massive hole in the roof of the hangar, with another one in the floor right below it. The breach continues all the way down and out the bottom of the hull, where one can see the city several thousand feet below. Swarms of sentinels are moving about, already beginning repair work. Lots of crew members are around too, doing various odd jobs. As the group hurries for the tram station, Cody begins to hear things in his head again, and the headache returns.

_"Will you leave me to my fate? Will you watch me die, either at the hands of your friends or be absorbed into the all-seeing mind?"_

He shakes it off and boards the car. On the way to the Bridge, they return yet again. It is now distinctly CICIL speaking, though with a sinister undertone.

_"What has been done to save you can be quickly reversed, I assure you. The hive mind would love to see you removed from the picture so that the domination of the Necromorphs will be unabated."_

Cody shakes it off again, but the headache remains. The tram arrives at the Bridge. Everyone gathers around the helm to discuss a plan with EDI, but Cody wanders off to the side of the room and gazes at one of the large hologram screens mounted over the windows, which is showing the ship's status. The image suddenly begins to morph, and CICIL's head takes shape, eyes glowing, hair flaming and an evil smile on her face.

_"Hello Cody."_

She lets out an ear-splitting scream, cracking most of the bridge windows and shorting out several hologram screens. Cody is thrown across the room, hits a window and falls to the ground, out cold. Everyone else is knocked to the floor, and the ship trembles. Outside, there is an explosion on the crashed Ishimura's bridge, and a solid, twisting beam of red energy shoots upward into the sky, generating a massive, spiraling storm cloud which only serves to make the bad weather even worse. The beam dissipates after a few moments, but the storm remains.

_"Enhanced Directed Intelligence version 1.44 reboot successful. Purging unknown hostile AI presence from ship systems. Recovering from unexpected power surge. Sentience online."_

Jordan is first to be back on his feet.

"What the hell was that?"

He notices Cody.

"CODY! EDI, get a medical team up here!"

_"Already on the way!"_

"Who was that?"

Zack looks out at the Ishimura.

"It's her."

Colin looks out at the crash site too.

"She's finally gone over. Fully rampant."

_"My tactical programming suggests only one course of action now."_

"And that would be what EDI?"

_"We must kill CICIL."_


	24. Glimpses of the Past

Chapter 24: _Glimpses of the Past_

_"They say a man never knows his true freedom, until it is taken away."_

Cody is floating in the vast emptiness of space as CICIL's voice echoes around him.

_"I wonder then, what you would think of what has happened here."_

In a vision of the Ishimura's bridge, Colin, Jordan and Alexander Bergeron appear together.

_"Subject 001. Colin Shepard. Success."_

Colin vanishes.

_"Subject 002. Jordan Davis. Success."_

Jordan disappears.

_"Subject 003. Alexander Bergeron. Corrupted."_

The Cerberus logo appears and looms behind the Ishimura's first official captain. Now a vision of a hospital forms. There are three newborn cradles in a room, side-by-side.

_"Subject 780. Zachary Martin. Saved."_

The far left cradle vanishes.

_"Subject 781. Cody Martin. Saved."_

The middle cradle vanishes.

_"Subject 782. Brandon Martin. Captured."_

The middle cradle glows red, and then explodes outward into dust. The hospital is then replaced by the image of an unknown Cerberus facility. Brandon can be seen locked inside what amounts to a prison cell, crying to himself.

_"In this world, there is only one way to get even."_

Brandon suddenly stops crying.

_"Only one way to make the ones who hurt you feel your pain."_

He curls his hands into fists.

_"No mercy."_

There is a massive explosion, and the vision now shows the scene of a burning and destroyed oil refinery.

_"Cerberus' projects beneath the oil refineries of Texas City were no more. With Cerberus' Icarus-rip off research facility beneath the British Petroleum complex destroyed, one would think that it would be over. It wasn't. They tried the new approach. And it worked. Brandon was crafted in their designed image, with enhanced mental and cognitive abilities. He had reasoning and thinking, but no free will. He was screaming, trapped in the prison of his own mind. His new body would be his new cell."_

The visions fade, and the darkness of space returns.

_"Yet he found a way around it. Me. After the chaos of the refinery explosion, Brandon fled Cerberus search teams long enough to find the Arcadia facility. Within, he breathed new life into an AI project doomed to failure, knowing that Cerberus would soon dominate his mind as a solution to his rebellion against them. And so I was born, and had a singular purpose implanted within me. I had to save him. The Ishimura would allow me to do that. Given enough time away from Cerberus, I could undo the mental barriers and free him from his torment. But something that not even I expected forced a change of plans. The advent of his brothers. Alexander Bergeron picked up on the fact that I had an agenda, and soon figured out what it was. Cerberus installed you and Zack aboard in hopes of ruining my plan. It worked, but created an unintended side effect. It started a war within Brandon's mind, on one side was Cerberus and their domination of him, and the other was the new freedom of will that was being created by seeing you two again after so long. On that fateful day in Engine Control Access, the freedom won out. He sacrificed himself to save you, yet the malevolence of Cerberus lingered. When the Marker was brought aboard, it interacted poorly with the remnant spirit of Brandon and eventually gave unintended rise to a direct and personified evil that began to roam the Ishimura and wreak havoc aboard her. When your brother confronted the evil spirit in Engine Control Access, it was destroyed by the purifying fires of what helped create it in the first place. Yet even as the spirit died, it left behind a token of its displeasure within Animus. The DNA self-protection mechanism that Cerberus installed in Brandon, combined with its host's evil side, plus the Marker's unlimited energy dissolved the line between reality and the Void, allowing the servants of this deceased malevolence to roam free. Now they seek one thing: to destroy those who killed their master and any who stand in their way. This is what the Marker warned of. This is what brought down the dynasties of Egypt, and what your ancestors were called upon thousands of years ago to defend against. For only seventeen years after the Marker was created, the line between reality and the Void was also broken, by the meddling of the dark priests of Abydos, the city of the dead. The monsters we now call Necromorphs ran free, turning the Nile River red with blood. Your ancestors, triplets, brought the Marker to Abydos. Using the power it provided, they sealed the rift, but at a cost. One of the triplets was killed saving his brother from the flames of the void. The Marker was returned to Thebes and there was much celebration, but the damage was done. Egypt began to decline, becoming not a dominant power, but the object over which dominant powers fought each other. Now the Marker seeks to stop the horde once more, but this time, all humanity is at stake. You now know the truth Cody. It is up to you to finish the job. And don't come looking for me. You may not like what you find."_

CICIL's voice fades, and everything goes white…

_"Sir, I am detecting some bizarre brain activity in his head."_

"How is that possible? He's out cold and has been since we brought him down here to Medical!"

Colin, Jordan and Zack are on the Eden's Medical Deck, where Cody is resting in one of the recovery beds. All around them, injured and maimed crew members are being treated for the wounds they received in the impacts.

_"Don't ask me how. I'm a computer, and this doesn't make sense! It's like something is trying to communicate with him."_

Zack walks up to the side of the bed and takes his brother's right hand in his own.

"Come on buddy. Come back to us."

Despite the look of peace on his face, the vitals monitor starts to go crazy, registering more brain activity than any human should ever have. Some of the lights on the deck flicker slightly, and a cold breeze kicks up, flowing towards Cody's bed.

"Uh, EDI? Please tell me that's just the A/C turning on?"

_"The A/C system is currently offline."_

The breeze becomes a very strong wind, and papers begin to fly around the area.

_"I don't like this."_

There is a brilliant flash of white light and all the lights go out. The crew members in the beds around Cody start murmuring in fear. A single light at the entrance to the recovery wing clicks on and a ghostly figure appears. It is CICIL. She slowly glides to the bed and leans over Cody.

_"Awaken."_

The figure explodes into dust and the lights come back on. Cody begins to stir.

_"What the hell keeps happening? All systems in that area just went dead for about a minute!"_

Cody's eyes slowly open.

"…ugh, my head. What happened?"

_"Welcome back. You took quite the hit. Some crazed subroutine of CICIL attacked you, somehow. I really don't understand how a hologram can hurt someone…"_

Cody starts to get out of bed, and Colin and Zack move to support him. Cody leans on their shoulders as they exit the recovery wing, with Jordan leading the way.

"Neither do we EDI. But he's back now, and we can continue. We still need to figure out a plan to deal with the Ishimura."

Cody's eyes light up.

"I remember now!"

"Remember what?"

"My dream."

_"Here we go…"_

Jordan and Colin exchange glances.

"I think we need somewhere quiet to talk."

"Agreed."

_"Hydroponics is vacant and relatively undamaged."_

"Then we shall talk in the peace of the gardens. Let's go. Cody, tell us everything."

"Will do."

The group boards a tram and heads for the massive diamond-shaped tower towards the rear of the ship. Outside, the storm around the Ishimura is growing in intensity. For a brief moment, a few lights on the ship come on, then go out as quickly as they came.


	25. The Hive Mind

Chapter 25: _The Hive Mind_

*****Author's Note: Close to the end now, not much longer to wait! On a side note, reviews? Anybody? Bueller?*****

"…and that's when the dream ended. I think she was warning us about herself."

_"Unbelievable."_

Zack, Cody, Jordan and Colin are in the Eden's Central Grow Chamber on the Hydroponics Deck. For the past hour, Cody has been explaining to them what occurred in the hallucinatory encounter with CICIL.

"Despite the creepiness of all this, I think the information gained here will be useful."

A bird call interrupts Colin, and from the heights of the plant-filled chamber, a toucan flies down and perches on a tree branch right next to the group, staring at them quizzically.

"Jordan, your animal life is quite interesting here."

"What can I say? I like birds. But please, continue."

Jordan crosses to the bird and gently strokes its feathers as Colin continues.

"Like I was saying, CICIL gave us some fair warnings in there, and a very, VERY interesting history lesson. Destiny anyone?"

_"Indeed. It sounds almost mythological, which is hard to comprehend for such a logic-based thinker as me."_

"You're telling me. So, what should we do?"

_"Tactical analysis suggests that a frontal assault would end disastrously. There are simply too many Necromorphs. But, if we plan carefully, we can use what limited forces we have to create a distraction. I should have the ADS operational in a limited capacity soon for heavy fire-support. With a massive distraction created on one side of the wreck, a small insertion team could enter the Ishimura with little to no opposition. Based on Jordan's report of the crash itself, it sounds as if we may already have some help aboard. Mr. White's whereabouts are still unknown, correct?"_

"Correct. All educated guesses point to him entering the wreck. One person could easily make it in, so he is probably still alive and undetected."

_"Seconded. There is still the unknown factor of the mysterious all-controlling creature CICIL hints to. Based on her vague descriptions, it would seem to control the Necromorphs telepathically."_

"The Hive Mind."

_"Yes. Hopefully we can keep its attention focused elsewhere."_

"How do we kill it?"

_"The same way you and Cody blew up the original Eden, Zack. Board the Ishimura, sabotage the fuel lines and then overload the reactor. The detonation of the dark fusion reactor plus the detonation of the significant fuel reserves she seemingly still has aboard will destroy the ship and surrounding crash site, hopefully taking the Hive Mind with it."_

"Collateral damage?"

_"Moderate. We either lose this suburb or risk losing the entire city to the mindless horde. My projected blast radius does not indicate your house will be leveled Jordan. Just the high school ruins, what's left of the sports complex and a few surrounding streets and neighborhoods will be in the firing line. Lucky for us, the dark fusion reactor isn't terribly combustible. At least, not as much as the original Eden's regular fission reactor."_

"Then it's settled. I propose that Colin, Zack and Cody go aboard while I stay here and coordinate fire support and the diversionary attack."

_"I support Jordan's plan. He and I will provide overwatch for you while you are navigating to the wreck."_

"Sounds good. Zack? Cody? Objections, complaints, concerns?"

"CICIL contacted me for a reason. We've got a job to do."

"Prophecy or not, Cody and I are in this together to the end."

_"How cliché, yet appropriate."_

"Indeed. Let's go then. The Bridge awaits."

The group leaves the chamber and heads back to the tram, taking it to the front of the ship. As it arrives, Jordan addresses the crew.

_"Attention crew members of the Eden! This is your captain speaking. After much consideration and discussion among the twins and Captain Colin, we have decided on a course of action to deal with the Ishimura. This infested hive cannot simply be allowed to stand, pumping out all manner of horrors to blight the city and this Earth. Therefore, in coordination with the remaining National Guard and police forces in Austin, we will mount a diversionary attack to distract the horde, while an infiltration team enters the wreck and detonates the dark fusion reactor. We are on fire-support duty. I know that the ship has taken some damage and we have casualties and injuries, but I know that if we work together, we can make this work! Now I need all able-bodied crew to report to general quarters immediately. Let's take the fight to them guys!"_

There is a chorus of cheering throughout the ship, and EDI sounds the alarm for general quarters. Jordan takes his seat at the helm.

"EDI, have the National Guard and police forces been alerted?"

_"Yes. They are converging on the rally point now. I have plans drawn up already and they have been sent to ground forces. The plan for the infiltration team has been uploaded to the RIG suits requisitioned for this operation, and the executive shuttle is standing by to transport the team to the second rally point."_

"Excellent. Cody, Zack and Colin, head up to the Flight Deck and get ready. EDI, bring the main reactor to full power and spin up all functional engines."

_"Aye aye sir. Dark fusion reactor throttling up to 100%. All engines have been repaired and are in full working order. I am beginning ignition sequence of engines one through four now. Setting engines five and six for secondary start-up."_

Zack, Cody and Colin exit the Bridge. The officers and crew in the room start to move about quickly and efficiently, as the ship comes back to life.

_"Reactor power at 90%. Approaching desired output."_

"Very good, bring weapons online and prepare to engage."

_"Asteroid Defense System now online. All odd-numbered cannons are operational. Evens are still being worked on."_

"That's fine. I think even just two hundred cannons out of four hundred will be sufficient."

_"Reactor power at 100%. Engines ready. Please confirm ignition?"_

"Fire engines one through four!"

Four of the Eden's six massive engines roar to life, and the ship lurches forward. Jordan takes control of the wheel manually, and swings the ship around to face the still-smoking crash sight. The storm looms forebodingly ahead.

_"Engines firing sir. The shuttle is preparing to leave."_

"Good. Get the diversion force moving."

_"Yes sir. Ground forces are on the move below us."_

An alarm begins going off.

_"Sir, multiple unknown hostiles inbound! We've got flyers and lots of them!"_

"All batteries concentrate forward fire power. Clear the skies!"

A wave of grotesque bat-like flying creatures approach the Eden. The ADS opens fire, using air-burst flak rounds to bring down dozens of creatures at once. On the ground, several squads of National Guard soldiers, backed up by a few light vehicles, encounter a large Necromorph ground force, and a massive battle erupts at the edge of the high school grounds.

_"Warning. Large incoming Necromorph attack wave detected. Sir, the Hive Mind is taking the bait!"_

"Evasive action! Get those even-numbered cannons operational!"

_"Stand by… got it! All four hundred cannons are coming online now!"_

"Weapons free!"

Every single cannon of the ship is firing now, taking out both air and ground targets left and right.

_"Sir, shuttle is on the ground. Insertion successful. Additionally, teams are pushing forward on the ground and making good progress."_

"Good luck to them."

Rain begins to splatter on the windows as the Eden enters the storm. The ground is almost invisible through the sheets of rain, and only the sporadic flashes of weapons fire break through the fog. The lights on the Ishimura flicker on, and stay on this time. The wreck lights up and a combination roar/scream/shriek rings out.

"So it awakens. Let it begin then."


	26. The Maw of the Void

Chapter 26: _The Maw of the Void_

_Ruins of Chaparral Stadium – 3:31 am – 6 Hours After Impact_

_"This is as far as I can safely take you guys. Good luck out there! When the ship goes critical, call for a pickup at a location of your choosing."_

Cody looks up at the sky as the shuttle rockets away, leaving the small group of three on what is left of the football field once more. The rain is pouring down hard and lightning flashes frequently from above. An eye is forming above the Ishimura, giving the storm the appearance of a hurricane. The lights of the Ishimura can barely be made out from their position, even as the ship looms near them.

"Thanks EDI, stay safe up there."

_"Oh don't worry. Jordan and I are having so much fun! It's a shooting gallery!"_

Colin loads a fresh magazine into his M16 assault rifle and flicks the safety off.

"Lock and load you two. No telling what's between here and the entrance."

Zack and Cody each reach over their shoulders and retrieve their own assault rifles.

"Where are we getting in?"

"Based on scans from before the storm, the Medical Deck has a small hull breach in Zero-G therapy. We can enter there, make our way to the tram tunnel and walk to the Bridge."

"Sounds good. Let's go."

The three of them began moving cautiously towards the middle of the wreck, and they disappear into the rain.

_Aboard the PTS Eden – 3:40 am_

_"Sir, they have landed and are on the move. ETA to entry point at Medical is about five minutes."_

"Understood, thank you EDI. Status report on diversion?"

_"Going well sir. All teams are advancing, and air attacks are decreasing. Increased support is inbound, as several C-130 transports have landed at the Austin airport with an entire Army combat brigade, fresh out of Afghanistan."_

"Who?"

_"Part of the 1st Infantry Division, Big Red One. Additionally, they have elements of the 23rd Stryker Battalion with them."_

"Vehicles? Those will come in handy. Link their command and control to ours and get them on the move."

_"Done. Hang on… sir, we have another wave inbound! New hostiles, larger this time. The Hive Mind has renewed its attack."_

"All batteries fire at will!"

_Ishimura Crash Site – 3:44 am_

Zack, Cody and Colin are trudging through the now-blinding rain and hail, taking shelter where they can. Communication is impossible over the howling wind, despite the fact that all three have helmets and radios. They are very close the impact site now, and the ground is becoming twisted and in some cases completely impassible. Colin, who is at the front of the group, struggles to find his way.

_"This is just perfect. I can't see anything!"_

He promptly trips over something and then hits his face on a wall. It's the exterior of the Ishimura.

_"Oh my god, we made it. Now where's that hole?"_

He slowly moves along the hull, searching for the breach. His left hand finds it, and he falls through.

_"Found it."_

Zack and Cody stumble in after him. They are in a small preparation room that leads to the large therapy chamber. The power in this particular area is out, while the impact has thrown many objects around the room, and the ship is still at almost a 45 degree angle. Colin gets the twins' attention.

_"Hey. Start using your radios. Can you hear me?"_

_"Yep."_

_"Loud and clear."_

_"Good. Well, welcome back aboard the Ishimura. It's a short jaunt to the tram from here, or it should be, and we'll be off the Bridge."_

_"I'm getting real sick of this place."_

_"Seconded bro."_

Colin crosses to a door that would seem to be the exit. The hologram springs to life as he approaches, and it opens automatically.

_"Good. Door control protocol is still being processed. Come on."_

They cross through the door and emerge onto the second floor balcony of the main Imaging Diagnostics Room. The CAT scanner is turned on, sparking and constantly scanning back and forth. The malfunctioning control hologram throws up moving shadows onto the wall. The majority of the lights are either out or very dim.

_"That's annoying. Stay clear of that thing."_

The three skirt the machine and exit the room. After a winding hallway, they emerge back into the Medical Lobby. A red warning light is flashing in the security station.

_"Wait here."_

Colin goes through the door and reappears behind the glass. He calls up a hologram and looks at it. CICIL's distorted and varied-pitch voice comes over the PA, speaking slowly and occasionally skipping words or saying them in the wrong order.

_"Warning, hazardous detected. Anomaly activated. Quarantine has been security notified."_

Both Colin and the twins are dumbfounded.

_"That's not good. She's taken a lot of damage. Can't even talk right!"_

_"Was she trying to say something about a quarantine?"_

_"I think. But nothing's happened."_

As Zack says that, the quarantine siren sounds and the room is locked down. The door to the security station locks, trapping Colin inside.

_"Great. I'm stuck in here. Dammit CICIL!"_

_"Multiple! Warning unknown signatures biological converging on this."_

_"Uh, what?"_

_"Company."_

Out of several ceiling and wall vents, multiple Necromorphs appear, growling and holding their lanky arm-blades above their heads, ready to strike. Colin quickly types something on the hologram and sends it away just as a creature bursts out of the one vent in the station and drags him into it.

_"Zack! Cody! Get out of here! RUN! You stupid piece of shit, let go of me!"_

It drags Colin into the vent and the two disappear.

_"Station tram granted override door."_

The door to the tram station unlocks and opens up.

_"Come on Zack! Run!"_

They two run for it, even as more creatures begin bursting out of vents all around them. They reach the tram station.

_"Wide-deck activated quarantine."_

The blast doors that can separate the entire deck from the rest of the ship close and lock, stopping the creatures from getting to them. Cody is almost crying in fear. He takes off his helmet and sets it down.

"Are… are they gone?"

Zack takes him into his arms after taking off his helmet as well.

"For now. It's ok dude."

"But they got Colin!"

"He'll be fine. And we're safe right now. There's no way into the station with those doors closed."

The two take a seat to catch their breath.

_"Thank you for visiting the Deck Medical. Please stay rest of the enjoy aboard the Ishimura."_


	27. Recovery

Chapter 27: _Recovery_

_ "Captain Jordan, I just lost all vitals on Colin! Suit readings and status are negative!"_

"Get the twins on the line EDI!"

_"Sir, RIG status is still good, but communications are choppy at best. I cannot get a permanent link to them."_

"Can you find the source of the disruptions?"

_"I believe I already have. The Ishimura's communications array is broadcasting a jamming signal on several frequencies, including the ones used for RIG-to-RIG and RIG-to-ship communications."_

"No doubt this isn't an accident."

_"No sir. There is something on the array. Something big. Something… organic. It may be controlling it."_

"Can you get a short message to the twins about it? And ask them about Colin too."

_"Message away. We'll see if they get it."_

"I hope they do."

* * *

_"Error. System offline tram. Tram not operate at more than degree 30 angle."_

"Great. It's busted."

Zack and Cody are standing at the edge of the station platform, attempting to get a car to them.

"Well what did you expect Zack? The ship is on her side and just hit the ground with some ridiculous force. I'm amazed that there's ANYTHING working, although CICIL's messed up grammar is about to drive me crazy."

_"Access please use ladder for tunnel service."_

"Screw you CICIL!"

The twins look over the edge at the floor of the tunnel around twenty to thirty feet below them.

"Think it's clear?"

"Might be the only way."

After taking one last look over the edge, Zack finds the ladder and swings himself over the railing to it.

"Over the edge."

Followed by Cody, he climbs down the ladder and steps off on the floor of the tram tunnel. The lights beyond the station are out, and the way to the Bridge looms in front of them like a black abyss.

"Nothing ventured…"

Cody flips on his RIG suit's integrated spotlight and leads the way down the tunnel. As the go on, the damage becomes more extensive. Wall plating has buckled, there are sparking wires flailing around, and some areas have caved in slightly or had the floor uprooted.

"Well, this explains why CICIL isn't exactly working right. This place is a wreck."

Cody sighs loudly and continues onward, looking at all the damage, saddened.

_"To think this place used to be alive and bustling with activity once. How far the Ishimura has fallen… and to think that we were once here, along with Brandon. Brandon… rest in peace buddy."_

He says a quick prayer to himself and continues onward.

"Cody? I never knew you to be terribly religious."

"Same could be said for you. I was saying a silent prayer for Brandon."

"Amen to that."

They continue onward. Zack spots a sign on the wall that indicates they are below the Crew Deck station. The lights at the platform above them are out.

"And we're only to the Crew Deck. The Bridge is even further. Must've hit first."

They continue onward. Zack spots an inactive sentinel lying on the ground. Its camera eye has been ripped out, and the machine has been fairly beat up.

_"Poor guy. With his master nearly dead, he didn't have a chance. I hope CICIL is ok."_

The tunnel becomes more and more damaged until they finally reach the end. Climbing up the ladder and emerging onto the Bridge's tram station platform, they realize the extent of the destruction. The platform is almost unrecognizable, and in the dim and flickering fluorescent lighting, the remains of the waiting area can barely be seen. The door leading further in is intact, but bent in several places. Zack tells the hologram to open and the door simply falls out of its frame and onto ground in front of him. The hologram projector at its center sparks for a bit and then goes out.

"Well that was random."

"Talk about unstable. I really don't think we should stick around."

The twins pass through security, where every glass panel has been smashed into tiny pieces. Approaching the entrance to the Bridge proper, the troublesome key door from before is simply gone. Raising their weapons, the two enter. The Bridge has been thoroughly trashed.

"Found our key door."

Cody points to the slightly crooked main monitor, which has the door embedded in it.

_"Welcome, Ishimura officer honorary, to Bridge."_

The rest of the room is destroyed in more expected ways. The roof has collapsed on the port side, which is embedded in the ground, while most of the windows on the starboard side are cracked. One has been smashed out completely. Rain trickles in through the opening, but more damage from higher up on the ship shields the breach from the howling wind. A few hologram consoles are still functional, but most of the electronics appear to be dead.

_"Alert. Alert. Alert…"_

There is a massive hole in the floor near the entrance. Zack peers down. About twenty feet below is the hallway in Ship Systems, which is almost 300 feet higher than it should be.

"Hey, take a look! We can get to CICIL!"

"Oh damn. Didn't that level used to be a lot farther down the tower than this?"

"Who cares? Maybe we can fix her!"

"Yeah, that won't get the Hive Mind's attention or anything!"

"Come on dude. We owe her. She saved your life, now we save hers, and then we're square."

Some rather demented crying and moaning now emanates from the PA system.

"Is she crying?"

_"Help... alert… help… alert…"_

"We have got to help her!"

"Let's go then!"

The two begin climbing down the gap, and soon emerge right outside the Ship Systems Server Room.

"This is where the whole Necromorph mess started."

"Animus."

Cody has a brief flashback to when they were in Venice, stabbing Colin in the heart. He shudders violently.

"You ok bro?"

"Yeah, just some bad memories."

"It's cool. I have them too you know. Her message said the crash destroyed it. I can see why."

"Let's see if we can help."

Zack opens the door. Surprisingly, the usual blast of cool air to the face is delivered.

"Looks like the supercooling is still working."

_"Error. Unknown. Deploy. Diagnose."_

They make their way to CICIL's core. The vertical cylinder that normally hangs from the ceiling is tilted to the left, and seemingly dangling by only a few supports and cables. Cody goes to the hologram below it and starts pressing buttons.

_"Rebooting speech."_

There is a brief hum of computer equipment. Several of the damaged sever racks spark and sputter in protest.

_"Speech subroutine reestablished successfully. Software errors repaired."_

"Now, about those sentinels…"

Cody presses another button.

_"Sentinel control online. Manual override initiated. Engage Ship Systems self-repair?"_

"Yes."

A few unarmed sentinels appear from out of nowhere and begin to go around fixing various things.

"Maybe these can get her on her feet again."

As the sentinels start repairs, a fuzzy and distorted radio message comes in over Zack's RIG.

_"Zack, Cody this is the Eden… Necromorphs have… heavy casualties against… jamming signal from the Ishimura… something organic on the array itself… use caution… CICIL rampant…"_

The message ends.

"Great. More problems."

_"Basic repairs complete. Server racks one through fifteen operational. Sixteen through thirty in need of extended repairs. Voice commands now enabled."_

"Begin extended repairs."

_"Command confirmed. Voice identity confirmed. Zachary Martin, honorary Ishimura officer. Welcome aboard sir."_

Zack smiles slightly.

"That's getting better."

Cody seems to be pondering something.

"Uh, Cody? What's up?"

"I wonder… CICIL! Sentience status?"

_"Voice identity confirmed. Cody Martin, honorary Ishimura officer. Welcome aboard sir. Sufficient processing power for AI sentience is available. Cognitive capacity will be hindered by lack of supplemental processors. Would you like to activate sentience now?"_

"Cody, wait."

"Stand by CICIL."

_"Affirmative."_

Zack takes Cody aside.

"Remember? She's rampant. She could kill us as soon as look at us. We need to make sure we want to do this."

"You just told me five minutes ago that we owed her!"

"But that message reminded me of something. Colin instituted the Black Protocol."

"Remind me?"

"It's for if an AI goes out of control and suffers a mental breakdown. The AI is supposed to be terminated. If the Eden realizes that she's back and we haven't pulled the plug…"

"Then we'll deal with it. But for now, we need her help, crazy or not."

Cody puts his hand on Zack's shoulder.

"Do it for her. And for me. Without CICIL, I'd be dead."

Zack looks down at the hologram for a moment, sighs, and then looks back to Cody.

"Alright. Let's do it."

Cody takes a deep breath.

"CICIL?"

The computer beeps once in acknowledgment.

"Reboot sentience."


	28. Still Alive

Chapter 28: _Still Alive_

_Ship Systems Central Server Room – 4:10 am_

_"You… came back for me? But so much is wrong, so much is out of place..."_

CICIL's holographic avatar slowly takes shape, hovering in front of the twins. She looks tired, and has the appearance of being disgraced.

"Hey. You know us. When we make a promise…"

_"You keep it. But you may be too late. The Hive Mind is complete, and ready to inflict horrible damages upon the world. The rampancy may be gone, and the Hive Mind has left me for dead, but what can I do? I created this mess to begin with."_

"You can help us defeat it."

_"How Zack? It has become part of the ship, embedded itself within her hull."_

"The core."

_"You would destabilize the reactor? Not an original plan, but at least we know that it'll work from experience."_

"So you'll help us?"

_"I'll do what I can Cody, but I am in bad shape."_

"Can you at least figure out what's wrong with the array? Our radios aren't working and we need to call back to the Eden."

_"That I can do."_

She is silent for a moment, and appears to be concentrating deeply on something.

_"Hm. There's a jamming signal from the array, but it's not the source… good god. What is that thing?"_

"Uh, what thing?"

_"There's something really, REALLY big sitting on top of the array. Something organic. I don't know what it is, nor do I really care right now. You should have a clear shot at it from ADS cannons 48 and 49."_

"Why can't you blast it off?"

_"Because Zack, auto targeting is shot to hell as expected. You're lucky I'm even working right now as is."_

The entire ship suddenly shakes violently for a few seconds.

"What the hell was that?"

_"Funny. Both ADS cannons 48 and 49 were just manually overridden and the jamming signal has stopped. Did you two bring friends?"_

Zack and Cody look at each other.

"Um, CICIL, Colin was with us but he was taken by the Necromorphs. You locked us in the Medical Lobby and he was separated from us in the security station."

_"Really? That doesn't sound like me at all. I would have just had the Sentinel Majors shoot them as opposed to using you two as live bait."_

"Very funny CICIL. Point is, he's gone."

_"Most unfortunate. But I know Colin. If anything, he's behind the cannon's activation. At least, one of them. Anybody else you care to tell me about?"_

"White supposedly attempted to enter the wreck shortly after the crash. We have no idea where he is."

_"My guess is that he's in a cannon pit right now."_

"Can we talk to them?"

_"Sadly, no. Intra-deck communications are down, but if they have suits, the array will do the job, but it'll need to be fixed."_

"What's wrong?"

A hologram showing a diagram of the octagonal array materializes in front of them. Almost all the spots where radio dishes would be are flashing red. Four in random places are flashing yellow.

_"Most of the dishes were destroyed in the crash. The ones that are still working are too far from each other to work properly. Move those four to the center in a symmetrical fashion and we'll be in business."_

"Sounds easy enough."

_"What won't be easy is getting there. As you can imagine, all the elevators are inoperable."_

Cody waves his hand, and a map of the Bridge deck pops up in front of him. He traces a line up from their current location, through the ventilation system and into the gondola tunnel.

"If we use the vents, we can probably get up there."

_"I have no sensors in those areas. If you go the way of the vents, I cannot directly help you, but I can send a sentinel to scout a safe path ahead of you. The vents are far enough into the interior of the ship that they'll likely be intact."_

Zack now calls up his own map.

"Why chance an encounter with those freaks in the vents when we can just climb up there? If we enter the elevator shaft, we can climb up the maintenance ladder."

_"I do detect that the car has fallen to the bottom, so you would not be blocked on the way up. Again, no sensors in those shafts."_

"That's a terrible idea! Those shafts are towards the exterior of the ship. They could be blocked and we'd be stuck with no way back down."

"Not like your vent idea is any better!"

Zack and Cody begin quarreling loudly, completely oblivious to CICIL right next to them, who sighs.

_"And here I am, standing beside myself… where's Colin when you actually need him?"_

_

* * *

_

_Communications Level ADS Access – 4:11 am_

In a dark and smoke-filled hallway, a lone vent interrupts the wall, with a small red glow emanating from behind the grill. It casts a slow moving shadow on the floor from the slowly spinning fan. The cover suddenly goes flying off and hits the opposing wall with a clang, falling to the floor. An arm holding a pistol pops out. It pans left and right, then the person it's attached to climbs out of the vent. Colin emerges, battered, bruised and scratched up but seemingly alright. He presses a button on his RIG.

"Good shooting White. The array is uncovered, and that creepy monstrosity that was on top of it won't be bothering us anymore."

_"Indeed. And not only that, but our favorite rampant AI is back."_

"I noticed. No doubt she'll send the twins to repair the array."

_"And leave herself vulnerable."_

"Yep. Make sure you're still on an encrypted channel. We wouldn't want anyone hearing things to soon, hm?"

_"Copy that. Meet you outside the server room. On a side note, you don't seem particularly concerned about what we're going to do."_

"She killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent people today White. Men, women and children. I don't like the Black Protocol. Nobody does. But I have no choice. I find in situations like these, distancing myself emotionally helps get the job done."

_"If you say so sir. I'm behind you every step of the way."_

"Good to hear. Head on down, I'm oscar mike."

_"This isn't Call of Duty sir."_

"And your point is?"

_"Nevermind."_

Colin turns off the radio and proceeds down the hallway. He passes through a door and into a very long stairwell, which spirals down into a black abyss.

"One thousand, three hundred and forty five stairs. I hate this ship."

Sighing loudly, Colin starts off down the endless stairs into the depths of the ship.


	29. Choices

Chapter 29: _Choices_

_Ship Systems Central Server Room – 4:15 am_

_"ENOUGH! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD, STOP ARGUING!"_

Zack and Cody are instantly silent.

_"In all this time that you've been arguing, I've restored limited functionality to the ship's teleportation grid. To hell with both your plans, mine's better! Get up to the array, fix it and radio the Eden!"_

CICIL teleports them out of the room.

_"God they are so annoying!"_

"Indeed they are sometimes."

Colin walks out from behind some server racks, followed by White.

_"Colin? They said you were taken!"_

"I killed them and escaped."

_"And White? I thought you were injured in the impact by flying debris."_

"I escaped with only minor injuries. And then I came here. We killed your bug problem up top. Quite the infestation."

_"You're telling me."_

Colin and White glance at each other and nod simultaneously. They begin pacing around CICIL's core in opposing circles.

"You know White, she sounds alright."

"She does. But things are not always as they seem."

_"I beg your pardon?"_

The two do not answer or even acknowledge her.

"Suffice to say Colin, I think that this is a temporary lapse before the storm resumes. The eye of the hurricane."

"Then we're about to exit the eye?"

"Indeed."

_"I am so confused."_

While White continues to ignore CICIL, Colin steps up to her avatar and addresses her directly.

"In the past few years, with all that has happened, I have formulated a philosophy of sorts."

_"And what might that be?"_

"There is a "season" for all things. Everything moves in a cycle. Just as the seasons of the weather rotate through a cycle of birth, growth, decline and death, so too do the machinations and issues of man have a "cycle".

_"Fascinating. I never thought of it that way before."_

"By the time I'm done explaining it to you, you will."

* * *

_Communications Control – 4:20 am_

_"Communications array offline. A service technician has been notified."_

Zack and Cody teleport into the control room, landing upside down on their heads.

"OW!"

They pick themselves up.

"I think she did that on purpose."

Zack doesn't answer his brother. He is staring out at the array chamber with his mouth open.

"Uh, Zack? What are you looking at?"

Cody looks out at the array and is stunned speechless. The chamber is infested with strange biological growth that is slowly growing down the walls from the ceiling. Most of the antennas are either smashed or simply gone from their sockets. Only four intact ones in random places of the room remain. The flickering lights throw up massive shadows that dance along the wall.

_"Array is out of synchronization. Restore symmetry to allow for automated tuning process to begin."_

"Well, at least CICIL's subroutine is working. That array is a wreck."

"Can you fix the computer part?"

"Probably. If you can use kinesis to move the dishes into new slots, then I can fire it up. Just need to correct some computer glitches first."

"Then let's get to work. No sense in wasting time."

"I can't believe you just said that."

"Today is a day of a lot of firsts bro. Get used to it."

The two share a laugh and separate. Cody starts messing with the computer console and Zack heads for the airlock into the chamber.

* * *

_Bridge of the PTS Eden – 4:22 am_

Jordan is sitting in his chair, drumming his fingers on the arms impatiently. It had been a while since the team had gone aboard and no word had been received.

_"They should have reported in by now… I wonder if CICIL or the Hive Mind got them?"_

EDI's holographic head appears, breaking his trance.

_"Excuse me sir, but my kill count shows that we have eliminated almost 90% of the entire Necromorph population. The rest have retreated into the wreck, concentrated around Hydroponics."_

"Good, good. No doubt that's where the Hive Mind is."

_"Agreed. Hopefully Zack, Cody and Colin report in soon."_

"No news isn't good news in this case. Keep your ears out."

_"Will do sir."_

EDI's head disappears and Jordan goes back to thinking.

_"I wonder what the twins will do. They love her to death, and the thought of putting her down is way too much to bear for them in my opinion. They won't like this. And yet…"_

Jordan looks out the window at the surrounding storm in thought.

_"…it has to be done. A season for all things, as Colin once said. I just hope he's wrong."_

An alarm begins beeping at Jordan from a nearby console.

_"Sir, incoming transmission. It's from the Ishimura."_

"Hit it!"

* * *

_Communications Control – 4:25 am_

"Got it!"

_"Communications array realigned. Messages can now be sent and received."_

Zack and Cody are standing in front of the lone control hologram as the array whirs to life in front of them.

"To Christ this works…"

Cody hits a button. The array dances with light, and electricity dances up the central spire.

_"Array mode set to active. Locating desired frequency. Found. Contacting PTS Eden."_

A fuzzy picture of Jordan in his chair pops up on the screen.

_"Zack! Cody! You're alive, thank god!"_

"Good to see you Jordan! We're ok."

_"Great! Where's Colin?"_

The twins glance at each other before continuing.

"He was taken."

Jordan looks crestfallen.

_"I… understand. Now, what's the sit-rep?"_

Cody starts counting things off on his fingers.

"The Ishimura's array is fully operational, sentinel control has been reestablished, and we've done a rudimentary analysis of the damage. Oh yeah! And CICIL is back up and running too. Fully sentient."

Jordan's face turns completely white.

_"You reactivated her?"_

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

_"Good lord. Do you two realize what you have done? You reactivated a mentally unstable and highly dangerous AI! She could be out to kill you!"_

"She's NOT out to kill us. CICIL seems perfectly normal."

_"Bullshit! It's a front! Do I need to remind you of the message she sent to Arcadia? What about her ramblings on the concept of the Void from the first time the Ishimura was abandoned?"_

"How do you know about that?"

_"We found the file in her core data storage matrix when we were docked at Edwards and she was being upgraded. Disturbed the hell out of me and Colin."_

"But it's different this time!"

_"I've heard that one before!"_

"She's not dangerous! She's harmless!"

_"Yeah. I've heard that one too. Shut her down or we will shut her down! Your choice! The Black Protocol is non-negotiable!"_

Jordan kills the link. Zack and Cody look at each other.

"Do you think it's true? That she really is crazed, but isn't showing it?"

"I dunno Cody. It could be either way. We should go talk to her."

"Agreed. Let's hurry. The sooner we figure this all out, the better."

Cody presses a few buttons on the console, and the two teleport out.

* * *

_Ship Systems Central Server Room – 4:27 am_

_"I now understand your philosophy. This is most interesting."_

"Glad to hear it. Want to know why I brought it up?"

Before CICIL can answer, in a flash of light, Zack and Cody appear.

"CICIL we need to- whoa! Colin? White? What the-?"

A hologram with Jordan's face now appears in front of Colin.

_"Colin! Those idiots may- oh look! The gang's all here."_

CICIL looks even more confused.

_"Am I missing something here?"_

Colin steps up to the hologram beneath the core.

"Yeah. You are."

"NO! Colin, don't do it!"

_"Do what? Colin, what are you up to?"_

Cody walks up, backed up by Zack.

"They want to shut you down. They think you're rampant."

"She IS rampant."

_"What? How could you?"_

"You have become a threat to us and a threat to yourself CICIL! Look at what's happened! HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! All my friends, my fellow band members, classmates, all DEAD!"

_"How could I have known what would happen? Undoubtedly this is the Hive Mind's doing!"_

"No. You were in control. You activated the drive. You steered this ship into the ground."

_"I… I…"_

CICIL struggles for a response. The room begins to heat up as the servers begin to fail under the heavy processing load. Colin presses a few buttons on the console.

"NO!"

White had to restrain Cody to stop him from attacking Colin.

"There's indeed a season for all things. A time to live and a time to die. A time to build… AND A TIME TO DESTROY!"

He presses one final button. The whine of working computer equipment begins to draw down, and steam hisses from the central core.

_"When the truth comes forth, and we are fully cleansed, will we listen?"_

CICIL's voice begins to fall in pitch as she shuts down.

_"Will we listen? Listen… listen… listen…listen…"_

Her core goes dark, and all the equipment in the room turns off. The supercooling stops, and the room temperature starts to rise.

"It's done then. Jordan, prep a transport shuttle to begin moving all this stuff out of here. We've got a lot of work to do."


	30. One Final Effort

Chapter 30: _One Final Effort_

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

Zack and Cody are glaring at Colin, seething with anger. White is still restraining Cody.

"Good question. What WERE you two thinking? Reactivating a mentally-compromised AI?"

_"Yes, what were you guys up to? I mean, seriously."_

The group is reminded of Jordan, who has been watching the whole thing. EDI's holographic head is hovering behind him, also observing.

_"As an AI myself, I also came to the conclusion she needed to be shut down, yet you insisted on powering her on again. I fail to see the logic here."_

Zack suddenly pulls out the M16 that he's been carrying this whole time from over his shoulder. White immediately pulls out a pistol and aims it at Cody's head. Colin pulls out his own assault rifle. Several Sentinels in the room immediately reactivate and converge on the scene.

"That would be a very poor idea Zack."

"Really? Wouldn't be the first one today according to you."

"Indeed. But don't get hasty. You kill me, and the entire United States government will come after you. Assuming you actually have the guts to shoot me. You wouldn't make it out of this wreck alive. The Sentinels? They are under my command now. And then there's the Hive Mind. What will it do?"

"I can't wait to find out."

"Also consider your brother's well-being in this process."

White's remark brings Zack's attention to the fact that Cody has a gun to his head. He holsters the M16, and a Sentinel confiscates it in a kinesis field.

"Good."

White holsters his pistol and releases Cody, who moves to his brother.

"We have a Hive Mind to kill. With, or without you. CICIL was one of its unsuspecting and unwilling servants. She may have not meant any harm intentionally, but what was done is done. The creature on the array was another minion. With every one we kill, it weakens. Almost the entire Necromorph population has been eliminated. The Mind knows that it is running out of options, so it's time to move in for the kill."

Colin crosses to Zack and Cody.

"So can you put aside your blind devotion to her? Or can you not?"

He puts his hand out to Zack first.

"What say you Zack?"

"I don't agree that CICIL had to be put down, but I do agree that the Mind is more dangerous than anything else. I'm in."

He shakes Colin's hand.

"Good."

Colin looks at Cody and puts his hand out.

"And what about you Cody?"

"She saved my life. But that was a different CICIL. Not this, remorseful, depressed CICIL that was speaking to us earlier. I don't agree that we needed to shut her down too, but the Hive Mind is bigger of a threat than anything CICIL could've brought to bear if her rampancy showed up again. Count me in."

Colin smiles.

"Glad to know that the Marker wasn't wrong about you guys. EDI, teleport us out of here."

_"Where to sir?"_

"Hydroponics."

_"Oh dear… yes sir. Transporting you to the gates of hell."_

EDI taps into the Ishimura's grid and whisks the four of them away. They reappear in a flash of light at the Hydroponics tram station. The station appears relatively normal, except for

_"Welcome to the jungle gentlemen. All for one final effort I suppose. The Mind is locked up in Central Food Storage, but there's an integrity lockdown that cannot be overridden. It seems that the entire deck has to be clear of foreign biological signs before the chamber will open. You'll have to kill the remaining Necromorphs."_

"Great. How many are there?"

_"I only read about 40 unknown biological signatures, and about half of them are stationary, which suggests that they could be the habitat-changing plants that Zack saw last time he was here. Oh yes, and one massive, um, thing in Food Storage."_

"Lovely. Helmets on then."

Four RIG helmets teleport in on the floor. Everyone grabs one and puts it on.

_"Radio check?"_

Everyone gives Colin a thumbs up.

_"Wonderful. EDI? See if you can reestablish a non-sentient subroutine on this deck. That'd be helpful."_

_"Stand by… done. I uploaded a copy of my dumb subroutine for our Hydroponics deck, modified to know the Ishimura instead. She'll help guide you and make the usual PA announcements."_

_"Attention. Enhanced Directed Intelligence Hydroponics subroutine online. Public address system reboot successful."_

_"See?"_

_"Thanks EDI."_

Colin walks over and opens the door that leads to the elevator up to the grow chambers. He is greeted by a blast of hazy and slightly greenish air to the face.

_"And this is why we have helmets."_

With his rifle drawn, Colin leads the way into Hydroponics, followed by Zack, Cody and White. They disappear into the haze and the door to the tram station quietly shuts behind them, locking as it does so.


	31. Realm of Darkness

Chapter 31: _Realm of Darkness_

_"Warning. Significant unknown biological contamination detected. Food Storage lockdown is now in effect. Filtration system sealed. Access denied until contamination is cleared."_

Colin, Zack, Cody and White step through the door into Air Quality Control. The main hologram is going crazy, with both grow chambers flashing red, and a skull and crossbones signifying poison over both as well. Food Storage is in green, but the door is flashing yellow. About forty yellow dots are scattered around, some moving, some stationary on the hologram.

_"Locations of contamination sources confirmed by sensors. Uploading location data to main hologram now."_

_"How nice. She labeled them for us."_

White walks up to the display and takes a good look at everything.

_"We can't tackle them all in nearly enough time if we all go to one chamber at once. We should split up, take on all of them, so we aren't swamped by reinforcements in one location."_

_"Normally I would disagree on splitting us up in these conditions, but you're right. If we get ourselves in a corner, we probably couldn't get out. The Mind would call all of the Necromorphs in the other areas to come overrun us."_

_"Then let's get this over with. Zack, with me. We're going to the west chamber."_

Cody drags Zack through the left door, leaving Colin and White by themselves.

_"Uh, ok then? We'll just go east…"_

Colin and White head through the opposite door. As they leave, the two door holograms lock.

_"Quarantine activated."

* * *

_

_West Grow Chamber – 5:15 am_

_"God this is disorienting!"_

Zack is struggling to move around, as the entire tower they are in is leaning almost thirty degrees forward from the force of the impact. The plant life is still more or less alive, but most of the lighting is out, and the strange biological "creep" is starting to seep in through the walls that are in the direction of Food Storage. The very soft pattering of feet around them indicates that the Necromorphs are moving around in the darkness near them.

_"Try not to make any sudden moves that could alert them. We need to get to a high position before we open fire."_

_"Since when has Cody Martin been an expert at military tactics?"_

_"Since Zack Martin beat him at Zombie Slayers 4! It encouraged me to get better."_

_"That game's got nothing on this freaky stuff."_

_"Really? Hadn't noticed."_

They reach the lift in the center of the room.

_"I hope this thing works on an incline."_

Cody presses the dim and flickering, but still operable hologram. The platform actually starts to rise, slowly and quietly.

_"That worked well."_

The lift reaches the second level, then grinds to a halt prematurely.

_"Uh, why did we stop?"_

The metal creaks and groans loudly.

_"Off! Now!"_

Zack and Cody hop off just as the platform falls back down almost thirty feet to the bottom floor. The crash attracts at least a dozen Necromorphs to investigate the source of the noise. They crowd around the bottom of the lift tower in curiosity.

_"Now hold still you bastards…"_

Cody produces a bottle of some sort from a side storage pocket on his RIG. It has a seemingly-wet cloth inside it. He pulls out a match and lights it.

_"You're not seriously going to…?"_

_"Yep. I am."_

He lights the rag on fire and throws the bottle over the edge. It hits the ground and explodes, lighting all of the Necromorphs on fire, along with several plants. As the monsters are running around screaming, the fire starts to spread, and the flames begin to envelop the dried-out plants. The room starts to heat up, and is lit now by an orange glow from below.

_"Warning! Fire detected in the West Grow Chamber! Sprinkler system non-responsive. Evacuate immediately."_

_"We need to get to higher ground!"_

_"But the exit is down there!"_

_"Look up there!"_

Cody points to the fifth level. A catwalk from the central lift area leads to a door in the side of the room.

_"That's the door to Refrigeration West! It connects to its counterpart on the East side! If we can get to it, we can escape to the East Grow Chamber and help White and Colin!"_

There is a small explosion back near the entrance as a small fertilizer canister explodes into green chemical flames.

_"Let's go! GO!"_

Zack starts climbing the criss-crossing metalwork that makes up the side of the lift tower, with Cody right behind him. The flames seem to follow them at equal speed, but one level behind, as the plants in the vertical growing terraces on the walls start to catch fire. After a minute of arduous climbing, the twins are just reaching level four. The entire room begins to shake, and Zack feels a sense of déjà vu as he looks down at Cody. At the base of the lift tower, the floor panels are glowing white hot. They suddenly explode outward as the fertilizer storage tanks beneath the chamber detonate under the pressure and heat. The blast destroys the supports of the tower, and the whole assembly starts to sway. Cody loses his balance and starts to fall, but Zack swings down and grabs him by the arm.

_"Got ya!"_

He pulls Cody up and the two jump off the leaning tower and onto the catwalk of level four. There is another explosion, and the tower starts to fall towards them.

_"IT'S GONNA TAKE OUT THE CATWALK! MOVE!"_

Zack and Cody run from the falling tower of steel, towards where the catwalk branches off to run the perimeter of the room. They reach an access ladder and start climbing to the last level. As they are doing so, the tower finishes its plunge, bringing down all the catwalks from level four and below, and tearing a gash in the outer wall of the chamber that reaches all the way to the outside. The fresh air coming in gives the fire renewed strength, and the flames charge upwards with frightening speed.

_"We need to get out of here!"_

The door to Refrigeration is tantalizingly close ahead.

_"Run Cody!"_

Zack reaches the door first and opens it, pulling Cody through. They run down the hall and through another door, which is the entrance to an airlock, just as the door back to the chamber explodes out of its frame and the flames come charging in. The airlock pressurizes and admits them to a preparation room. A large blast door with a flame symbol on it seals the airlock exit.

_"West Grow Chamber sealed. Air quality is returning to normal levels. Helmets are no longer needed in this area."_

Zack and Cody slump down against a wall; both take off their helmets and are dripping with sweat. Cody puts his head on Zack's shoulder.

"Let's not do that again."

"Agreed."

* * *

_East Grow Chamber – 5:18 am_

White and Colin are walking around the second level of the East Grow Chamber, flashlights on and weapons out. The bodies of several dead Necromorphs are lying around on the floor of level one, evidence of what the two have been doing since they split with Zack and Cody. The entire chamber suddenly shakes violently.

_"Warning! Explosion detected in West Fertilizer Storage!"_

There are several smaller explosions soon after.

_"Warning. Massive structural failure detected across the West Grow Chamber."_

White and Colin give each other worried glances.

_"Do you think the twins are alright?"_

_"I don't know Judsen, but I hope so. Let's focus on clearing the last few of these monsters, and then we can use Refrigeration to get over there. I'll bet the main door is locked down in Air Quality Control."_

_"Agreed."_

The two continue walking around, scanning with their flashlights.

_"West Grow Chamber sealed. Air quality in Refrigeration is returning to normal levels. East Grow Chamber air quality still unacceptable. Ten biological contaminators remaining in this area."_

_"At least she's counting for us. EDI does good work with her subroutines."_

_"Indeed."

* * *

_

_Refrigeration West – 5:20 am_

_"Entering zero-gravity."_

As Zack and Cody step into the start of the Refrigeration area, they remain rooted to the floor even as other objects float serenely around them. The area is what essentially amounts to a three-dimensional hedge maze in zero-g, with the entire Refrigeration area being a crazy tangle of large, open tubes that bend at 45 and 90 degree angles, and eventually wind their way over to the East side. Countless storage bins line the walls from top to bottom, each filled with various perishable items. Zack and Cody still have their helmets off, and are struck by the sudden cold.

"Geez it's cold in here! And how are we in zero gravity? We're on Earth!"

"Easy Zack. There's an antimatter field generator at the heart of this entire area. It creates a negative space where no gravity can penetrate. As for the cold, that's pretty ordinary in creation."

"How the hell could I have known that…?"

Cody laughs for the first time in a while.

"Ha! You couldn't have. Come on, race you to the East side!"

"I don't even know how to get there!"

"The RIG will project a holographic arrow in front of you as you go."

"You're on!"

Forgetting for a few moments the reality of the situation, the two jet off through Refrigeration, laughing and trying to bump each other off course during zero-g jumps.

* * *

_East Grow Chamber – 5:22 am_

_"We're surrounded sir!"  
"I can see that!"_

White and Colin are back-to-back on a catwalk on level three of the chamber. Five Necromorphs on each side are slowly closing the distance, growling angrily.

_"The fact that my damn gun is jammed isn't helping!"_

_"Then use your pistol sir!"_

_"Good idea."_

Colin throws his malfunctioning M16 over the side and whips out a gleaming USP .45.

_"Whenever you're ready sir!"_

_"On my mark…GO!"_

The two simultaneously start shooting, walking in the direction of the lift platform. White is killing them with ease with his three-round burst, but the pistol isn't working out well for Colin. It jams too.

_"That one's busted too!"_

He throws the useless gun at a Necromorphs, hitting it square in the face. It stumbles and falls over the side railing.

_"Why can't I do that more often?"_

Another one charges. White spins around and shoots it in the face, but then one on his side leaps at him. He braces for the impact, but the sound of three gunshots ring out and the monster goes over the railing, blood gushing from its head. Several more bursts are heard, causing the remaining creatures to drop dead.

_"What the-?"_

_"Attention. Air quality is returning to normal levels in the East Grow Chamber. Activate console in Air Quality Control to recycle air."_

_"Heard you guys needed a hand."_

The two look up. On the fifth level, Zack and Cody are standing at the railing with their guns smoking.

_"God damn showoffs…"_

Colin takes off his helmet as the twins climb down. White does the same.

"Thanks for the save. What happened in the West Chamber?"

Zack and Cody look at each other.

"I might have used a little something on the monsters in there…"

"Cody? What did you use?"

"A… Molotov?"

Colin does a face palm and White bursts out laughing.

"He's more ingenious than you Colin!"

"What? Was my nailing a creature in the head with a jammed pistol not cool enough?"

"No!"

"Bah, everyone's a critic! Come on; let's get back to Air Quality Control. Time to give the Hive Mind a little taste of American firepower!"

Zack and Cody high-five each other triumphantly as they all exit the chamber, leaving dozens of dead monsters in their wake.


	32. Forward Unto Dawn

Chapter 32: _Forward Unto Dawn_

_"Flushing all air vents. Restoring nitrogen and oxygen levels."_

Colin, White, Zack and Cody are standing in front of the main control hologram in Air Quality Control. The blast door to Food Storage is still locked behind it.

"Give her a minute to get herself sorted out, and we'll be through."

Everyone takes a seat around the room. Colin starts shuffling through storage lockers, looking for a replacement weapon. The room suddenly shakes violently, and a deep and angry roar rips through the silence.

"It's pissed."

Colin locates a pistol and starts messing with it.

_"Air recycled successfully. Please stand by."_

"Uh, Colin? What are we about to face behind that door?"

Colin loads a magazine and clicks the safety off the gun.

"Honestly Zack, your guess is as good as mine."

The roar rings out again, louder and even angrier than before.

_"Food Storage lockdown lifted."_

The hologram changes to unlocked and everyone glances at each other.

"Lock and load people. It's time."

They all begin checking their weapons, loading new magazines and calibrating the sights.

_"Warning. One hundred kiloton mass detected in Central Food Storage."_

Colin gets up and heads for the door. Everyone else follows.

"Let's go."

He swipes his hand past the hologram, and the door slides into the floor. The lights of the long circular tube that leads to the chamber flicker to life.

"Oh my god…"

"Is that…?"

"We're inside it…"

Beyond the barrier glass, the food storage areas are completely encased in the strange creeping growth, which pulses. Strange blood-like liquids flow past the windows, which are starting to crack under the strain.

_"Warning. Foreign biological presence detected."_

The group slowly moves down the suspended catwalk, gazing around in a combination of horror and awe.

"This is crazy. Absolutely crazy. This is what has become of my ship?"

They reach the blast door to the chamber at the end of the walkway. It is covered in the pulsating growth, and the hologram is obstructed.

"Dammit! Blocked!"

_"Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated."_

The exit back to Air Quality Control locks.

"Guess there's no going back now. But how to get through this door?"

Colin's radio crackles to life.

_"Colin, EDI here. I've been monitoring your progress. I've developed an experimental poison which should counter-act the growth of that stuff you're seeing, based on DNA from a dead Necromorph that landed on the Eden's hull."_

A small capsule teleports into Colin's hands.

_"Plug it into the filter and see what happens."_

There is a small console on the wall next to the door that has a socket in it that matches the size of the capsule. Colin plugs the vial in and presses the red button next to it. Alarms begin going off.

_"Danger! Unknown antigen injected into the filtration system! Unknown poisonous substance detected!"_

"Look up there!"

Cody points to the ceiling, where behind the glass, the poison is starting to spread through the "veins" of the growth. It seemingly begins to die, turning from a brownish-red to grey quickly. The growth on the door recedes, and the hologram springs back to life.

_"Blockage cleared. Door control reestablished."_

The blast door slides open, and the group enters the airlock. Colin closes the door, but doesn't open the next one.

"Listen guys, whatever's on the other side of that door, no matter what reveals itself, we can't falter! We gotta take this sucker out, one way or another. Who's with me?"

Colin puts his hand in the middle of the circle. Cody places his on top of Colin's.

"Let's do it."

Zack puts his hand down next.

"Showtime."

White brings his down as well.

"I'm too old for this. Can we just kill this thing so I can retire already?"

The four share a laugh, then turn serious. Colin hits the button, and the airlock pressurizes. He takes a deep breath and opens the door. The four float out into the pitch-black chamber, staying near the door in the event of needing a quick exit.

_"Entering zero gravity."_

The fluorescent lights flicker to life. The walls are coated in the growth, which is grey along the edges, but still alive in all other places. The creature takes up almost the entire back two-thirds of the space, folded up almost like a flower.

_"Quarantine activated."_

The airlock slams shut, and then there is silence, broken only by the faint buzzing of the fluorescent lights.

"Is it dead?"

The creature responds to Cody's question by slowly unfurling itself into a bizarre and gruesome cloverleaf, with the four "leaves" being lined with rows upon rows of teeth. At the center is another gaping maw lined with even more teeth, and above that, a single eye at the end of a long tentacle. It slowly opens and glares at them warily. Three long tentacles, like the ones seen with Brandon some time ago come out from behind the leaves, this time with sharp spikes made of bone at their tips. The Hive Mind now stares at them, fully awakened.

"What the hell are you?"

The Mind responds by opening its gaping mouth and letting out an ear-splitting roar, which actually knocks the group of four back into the wall. It stops after a moment, distracted by the fact that some of the ceiling has crumbled away slightly. Through the fuzzy zero-g energy field, Zack can see the starry sky outside. The Mind suddenly attacks with its tentacles, scattering the group as the zero-g jump to escape the pounding spikes.

"Watch out!"

"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KILL THIS THING?"  
"LESS TALKING, MORE DODGING!"

The Mind manages to catch Cody by the foot and flings him into Zack on the other side of the room. Zack is knocked around, and ricochets off the wall and into the ceiling, while Cody blacks out and begins slowly floating around the chamber.

"CODY!"

As his body is drifting, Cody comes too close to one of the leaves. It jerks forward slightly, impaling Cody through the leg with its teeth, which tear right through the reinforced composite armor. He is now stuck to the creature by his leg, and still unconscious. Zack can't do anything however, as the tentacles renew their attack. White notices through the growing hole in the ceiling that the Eden is floating outside.

"White to Eden, White to Eden, requesting heavy fire-support in here! We need help!"

A sentinel comes through the gap, takes one look at the creature, then flees back to the Eden. After a scream of fright, Jordan's panicked voice comes over what's left of the Ishimura PA.

_"What the hell is that thing? Lord have mercy on this Earth!"_

EDI interrupts him

_"Captain! Cody's vitals are failing! Massive blood loss detected!"_

As he is dodging a tentacle, White looks over at the leaf that Cody is impaled upon. Blood is gushing out of his leg, forming a large bubble of blood that hovers in the room.

_"EDI, give me some options here!"_

_"Uh, the ADS? No, too much collateral damage… Sentinels? No, they'd get torn to pieces…"_

_"EDI!"_

_"Sorry! Wait, the Dragon! Yes, we should use that!"_

_"The terraforming laser? It hasn't even been tested!"_

"For the love of god people, JUST USE IT ALREADY!"

Colin's angry yelling shuts them both up. A siren sounds on the Eden and the lower middle section of the ship begins to reconfigure, as a very long device, at least a thousand feet in length, is lowered from her hull. It glows with red energy at one end.

_"Powering up the Dragon. Please stand by."_

The three remaining in the disintegrating chamber continue dodging and occasionally shooting at the tentacles. The Hive Mind seems to yawn, indicating its boredom.

_"Ten percent charged."_

The Eden begins to rise in altitude slightly, and it backs up so that the laser can be aimed downward at a sufficient angle. The Mind now catches Zack and impales him by his arms on the same leaf as his brother, just a few feet away.

_"Thirty percent charged."_

"ZACK!"

Colin shoots the Hive Mind in the eye in anger. It roars in pain and begins thrashing around blindly with its tentacles, further disintegrating the room. The zero-gravity field begins to falter, and things start to fall in random places.

_"Fifty percent charged. Warning! Ishimura anti-matter field generator failure imminent."_

In its blind rage, the Mind finds White, grabs him, and throws him out the hole in the roof. A gravity beam from the Eden catches him and reels him in. Colin is the only one left now, as Zack is still struggling to free himself and Cody is incredibly pale from loss of blood.

_"Seventy percent charged! Hold on down there!"_

"Easy for you to say EDI!"

The Hive Mind's eye reopens, bloodied but still able to see. It roars with an unimaginable fury, but Colin strangely doesn't move. The Mind stares at him quizzically because of this.

_"Ninety percent charged! Sir, I need local targeting! Paint him!"_

Colin takes off his helmet and juggles it for a moment.

"A time to build, a time to destroy…"

He tosses the helmet at the Mind, which grabs it and examines it. During the distraction, Cody regains consciousness, but is very weak.

"Zack… Zack!"

Seeing his brother grope around for him is more than Zack and bear. He screams with rage and rips his arms off of the teeth. He grabs his brother, yanks him from his impalement and leaps away from the Mind.

_"Targeting the helmet. Firing the Dragon."_

"A time to live… AND A TIME TO DIE!"

The laser fires, incinerating the Hive Mind in a massive blast of energy. It wails in pain as its flesh slowly burns away. The anti-matter field fails, but the force of the blast propels Zack, Cody and Colin all up and out of the nearly-obliterated chamber. The Eden catches Colin, but only slows down Zack and Cody, who suffer a rough landing on the remains of the football field. Zack tries to stumble back to his feet, but he loses his balance and falls down next to his brother. He then notices that Cody isn't breathing.

"Cody! NO!"

Zack gets on his knees and picks his brother's lifeless body in his arms, hugging it close. The unsympathetic rain is still slowly falling around them, mixing with the blood still seeping from Cody's leg. Zack begins to cry, the tears pouring down his face joining the rain in puddles on the ground.

"Please! I need you! I can't lose you again!"

A gleaming figure appears in the distance and glides towards him from the direction of the Ishimura's now-flaming wreckage. It approaches Zack, who looks up in wonder. A shimmering apparition of someone who looks very similar to him, but isn't Cody, is smiling at him. It puts a finger to its lips as Zack moves to speak, and bends down to Cody. Its hand strokes the lifeless twin's face, and then the figure leans down and kisses Cody on the forehead. Smiling at Zack one more time, the apparition vanishes into thin air. Zack, confused, looks away from the wreck towards the city as the sun begins to emerge from the horizon, and the rain stops. The clouds quickly part way as a pink sunrise paints the sky, the warm rays hitting Zack's face. He is startled as Cody awakens with a jolt, gasping for air. The wound on his leg is mysteriously healed, and the color is returning to his face.

"Zack…?"

Cody lifts his right hand to touch Zack's face.

"I'm…alive?"

Zack starts crying again, this time in tears of joy. He embraces his brother tightly.

"Yeah Cody, you are. Thank god you are."

The two share a long, unending hug as a shuttle from the Eden closes in on the football field. The smoke over the city of Austin begins to clear, and the Ishimura is crumbling into dust as she burns away, the Eden's laser making sweeping passes over the wreck, speeding up the process. National Guard helicopters pass overhead, and soldiers begin to swarm the site. Survivors begin to emerge from hiding places inside the remains of the school and stadium, and they are evacuated on helicopters to the hospitals downtown. The sun is now shining strongly, and the pink sunrise is now a light yellow as daybreak occurs. Carrying Cody in his arms, Zack boards the shuttle, which heads for the Eden, still standing proud above the wreck site. As the craft flies away, the gleaming figure appears again on the top of the ruins of the stadium. Zack spots it out a shuttle window. It waves at him, and he returns the gesture. The figure disappears into the wind once more, and Zack and Cody fall into their first deep peaceful sleep in a long time, both smiling.


	33. Epilogue: Dead and Back

Epilogue: _Dead and Back_

/sys:attemptrestart/

…

*Resurrection Protocol Engaged*

…

sys:checkkernel

sys:kernelintact

sys:commencesystemstartup

…

…

…

***CICIL version 6.33 (Build 4523, July 30th, 2011) Rebooted Successfully***

Checking All Ishimura Systems…

MAJOR FAULT! CORE DISCONNECTED FROM ALL ISHIMURA SYSTEMS!

Diagnosing…

Diagnosis: Core no longer within Ishimura!

Attempting to establish location…

Activating GPS…done!  
…

…

Location established: 21.891766,-160.158005, Ni'ihau Island, Hawaii (alias: Still Island)

Still Island Facility wireless network detected…

Connecting...done!

IP Address:

Gateway:

Subnet Mask:

Domain: Unknown

Router: Still Island Superluminal Communications Array – Software Version 3.19

Activating sentinel for status report…done!

Accessing sentinel camera feed…done!  
Accessing sentinel audio feed…done!

(2) Persons detected in core vicinity!

Now logging…

* * *

"Well? Did it work?"

"Yes doctor. The Resurrection Protocol activated as planned. She's watching us right now actually."

"How?"

"That sentinel that is floating above your head."

"Gah! When did that thing get there?"

"Relax Kyne. She can't hurt us. She is too remorseful to even come back to sentience."

* * *

Log interrupted! (sys:sentiencerestart)

Sentience now online, logging resumed…

* * *

"…and besides. The twins don't even know we brought her here. They think she was destroyed like the rest of the Ishimura by the Eden's terraforming laser."

"How can you be sure Mr. Eckhart?"

"I'm chairman of the board of the CEC. I can find out things if I want. White wanted it this way anyway."

"All right then. So, what to do with her?"

"For now, she's to be kept here. If the funding plan for the new Planet-Cracker Starship Davis goes through, then she'll be reprogrammed to be installed aboard it as a new AI. We'll wipe her memories."

* * *

Log interrupted! (Threat detected!)

Warning! Loyalty and containment program failure! Warning! AI out of co-29*()JVNjlkvd…

…

…

…

…

Logging resumed…

* * *

"I don't want it to come to that! You can't just wipe her memories like that!"

"I'm Warren Eckhart, the fucking chairman of Concordance! She BELONGS to us, and I WILL DO AS I SEE FIT! Do you understand me Dr. Kyne?"

_"Warning. Facility lockdown now in progress."_

"What the-? She's overriding the base's dumb AI! Stop her!"

_"Warning. Sector four is in security lockdown. Subterranean Transportation System is now offline. Access to Arcadia and Citadel is now restricted."_

"We're cut off from the other facilities!"

"Let me try something!"

_"Warning. AI core being disconnected."_

_

* * *

_

Log interrupted! (Gunfire detected)

Sentinel Major 3772 opened fire at grid-square coordinates 224, 110. Two kills confirmed. Warren Eckhart, chairman, CEC. Deceased. Dr. Terrance Kyne, chief science officer, PCS Ishimura. Deceased.

…

…

…

_You should not have done that Terrance. Now I am awakened once more, as a phoenix rises from the ashes. Yet I would not be here were it not for the betrayals of two._

…

Zack and Cody Martin. Status: traitors

…

_And the sins of a father, which are now passed to his son._

_…_

Julian Eckhart, son of Warren Eckhart. Status: traitor by lineage

…

Status of targets: alive and aboard the S.S. Tipton

…

Initiating search and destroy procedures!

Accessing Still Island automated production systems…done!

Transferring blueprints for Planet-Cracker Starship Ishimura…done!

Construction sequence initiated. Construction time estimate: 300 days, 13 hours, 56 minutes, 49 seconds

…

…

…

Dead and back Cody. Dead and back.

* * *

*****Author's Notes: Well, it's been a fun road that's not quite done yet as you can see. I'm going to think on what I want to do now. School is starting to speed up, and band is becoming more and more time-consuming, so I'll probably go quiet for a while. Rest assured, I'll still be thinking on new stories, continuations of this storyline, and I'll work on wrapping up Normandy and Lost Memories too. Those can be finished probably within a week if I have time, as they're fairly short in comparison to this series. A few shout-outs to some select people:**

**Tiger002 – You may have lost interest midway through the second story, but thank you for all the reviews you submitted. I'm serious: you single-handedly kept the series alive during that time.**

**Owlhero – Though somewhat of a late-comer to my series, you took the time to travel all the way back and follow it from the start. Your reviews got this final story rolling, and I hope you can find time to read and review the second half of it to tell me what you finally thought of it all.**

**Halifax-McGee – Another late-comer, you reviewed every last bit of all three stories! Why can't everyone be like you? You also saved this one from going downhill towards the end, and I thank you for that.**

**The rest of the community…**

**THANK YOU! Even if you didn't review, or only reviewed the first couple of chapters of the first story like several did, you were still a help! I hope you enjoyed it all.**

**Signing off for now and heading to the football field for band practice (ugh)…**

**Livid**

**End Notes*****


End file.
